


The Azalea Effect - Free WebNovel

by Jeteren



Category: Based on Primeval, Original Work, Primeval
Genre: Action/Adventure, Based on Primeval - Freeform, Character Death, Dinosaur - Freeform, Dinosaurs, Explosions, Free Novel, Gun Violence, Horror, Megaraptor, Minor Character Death, More - Freeform, Neovenator, Not Primeval Fanfic, Parallel Universes, Psychological Horror, Speculative Evolution, Swordfighting, Time Travel, Violence, spinosaurus - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:54:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 48,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27339766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jeteren/pseuds/Jeteren
Summary: Private Investigators Caleb Azalea and Paris Chambers investigate a haunting. Meanwhile, an archaeological team is kidnapped by a clandestine agency to work for them. The reason- dinosaurs, monsters, conspiracies, and Time Portals. Somewhere else, a hidden society plots to discover and steal valuable pieces of technology that may just be alien. Though all their paths may seem different, time does work in mysterious ways...





	The Azalea Effect - Free WebNovel

Also available at Dawnoftheportals.wordpress.com or the TrinaryChaos Subreddit

Season One Content

A Distinct Paranoia  
Dawn of the Portals  
Fairchild  
Sukie Everlie  
Angler Fish  
When Darkness Falls  
Geologic Time Shift  
Flightless  
Squid  
Cluster  
A Glow in the Dark  
Beneath a Blanket of Snow  
Keep Calm and Blow Bubbles  
Ghost Stories  
The Impossible Train  
Dam It!  
A Distinct Paranoia  
The coffee shop bustled with specks of humanity dancing this way and that. There was an almost autonomous tone to the people who frequented it, but if you met one, they would just say it was habit. And part of it was habit, as most of the darting people worked at the stores in the mall. Coffee was always a delight in the city of Kintain, which always seemed to rain. After all, who wouldn’t like a heartwarming delight amongst the storms?

Today, the store attracted new faces, two, in fact.

Seated at one table of the shop was a young woman in a bright red dress. From the entrance came a man wearing different shades of blue.

“Ah, there you are!” the man called. “Red, and exactly where you said you’d be.”

“And you are…?” the woman in red questioned.

“You may call me Azalea. My agency has an interest in your story. We will be willing to investigate.”

“Good,” the woman began, shifting to reveal a briefcase underneath the wooden seats. She opened the case and pulled out a sheet of paper, “this advertisement?”

“That’s the one,” Azalea confirmed.

“Wow, I thought nobody would find that.”

“Well, not all people would pick that up.”

“Well, nobody is going to assist a newcomer to this city… who doesn’t exactly have funds.”

“I assure you,” Azalea began, rooting around in his suit for something, “our agency will cover any fees. Now, the story?”

The woman in red sighed and pondered a moment. “Okay. My name is Jessica Io.”

“Got that,” Azalea muttered, writing it down on a piece of paper. “Oh, do you mind if I burn this teddy bear?”

“Wha-” Jessica gasped, looking up to see Azalea holding a lighter extremely near a large handcrafted bear. “Why?”

“For fun. Nobody will care,” Azalea explained, lighting it on fire. Nobody noticed. “See? Now, your story.”

“It all happened a few months ago- hell, it’s still happening now,” began Jessica Io. “Now, I’m new to this area, as you’ve been told. Before I moved here, everything was perfectly normal. I was just a regular citizen in my previous city. I was drowning in debts and had been evicted for not paying my money. Anyway, I was doomed until I got a text from some guy saying I had to collect some will properties.”

“Brilliant start,” Azalea gurgled nonsensically. “Now, the name of this person?”

“Oh, he was some guy named Hank Eva from a law firm,” Jessica told, unsure of what else to say while Azalea tried not to burn himself.

“Oh, go on.”

Without anything else, she went on. “Now, I was brought to this law firm, and I was given control of about a million dollars from some dead aunt who lived here. But more importantly, I had a place to live here in the city of Kintain. A small house quite modern-looking, even futuristic.”

“And the address?”

“It kind of… doesn’t have an address. It’s built just in a clearing outside of town, in the middle of the forest.”

“I see, continue.”

“Actually, you’ll never believe me- it-it’s unbelievable.”

“I’ll believe,” Azalea sighed.

“Let’s just see about that,” replied Jessica. “I lived in the house for a month, desperately trying to find a job while I lazily watched television all day. Of course, living in a house in the middle of the woods doesn’t exactly make for an easy way to get to town, but I found a job. ”

“How nice!” Azalea whooped, attracting some confused faces. But mostly because he was now blowing bubbles.

“The job was just managing a restaurant. It was closing due to money and most of the employees had abandoned the place. Well, due to my… previous job experience I was quickly chosen to manage the place. With my skill, it bounced back up, netting me a steady amount of money.”

“Oh! Fun! It’s that old timey steakhouse, isn’t it?”

“Correct, and it’s a wonderful job. Now, that’s when this problem started,” Jessica began, heavily sighing. “After a few weeks of managing- I came every day to make sure I wouldn’t lose the job, I began to take note of the regulars. One day, I noticed someone who was not a regular. This person… I can’t really describe it…”

“It?”

“I couldn’t tell what gender they were- still can’t. If you can even believe my story. Anyway, this new person, they ordered a regular meal, but it’s the way it ate the food. It was just odd. Mixing all the sauces together and wasting lots of the seasoning. It was quite odd, but I thought nothing of it. One day, I noticed them somewhere else.”

“How peculiar,” Azalea commented, “did you get their name?”

“No, I never did.”

“Ah, how interesting, do continue. Oh, and describe this… person.”

“Tall, very tall. At least that’s what I had thought. From a distance, this person looked extremely tall. When this person stood up, it was like they were tall enough to touch the ceiling. But every time I got close, the height always seemed to match those of people around. Nobody else noticed this, but I think they were too busy doing work on their phones.”

“Features? Tattoos?”

“No noticeable features, really. Or any tattoos or markings. He just looked like an average person. Hair was a bit long, but short enough to pass as any gender. This person, they always wore the same thing- a black suit with a checkered purple tie.”

“I’ll look into that. Now, what happened next?”

“As I was saying, I saw them as I was shopping for shoes in the sporting store nearby. I believe I was testing out some new shoes when I caught a glimpse of them in the mirror, just staring. Not moving, not even idle movements. Just… staring into dead space. Naturally, I wrote it off as a coincidence and continued shopping.”

“And you only saw him at that store that one time?” Azalea inquired, tossing the bubble liquid container to the side, spilling soapy water into the floor. A few guests stared at him, but nobody dared to question the man. 

“Well, uh,” Jessica began, noticeably uncomfortable with the soapy mess on the floor. “That’s the only time I saw him in that store. And before you ask, I didn’t bother to go looking for them.”

“And the next occurrence of this sighting?”

“The second time was two days later. I was shopping for groceries. Nothing happened as I shopped, thank god. I went up to check out the basket and… there that guy was. They sort of stared off into a space for a good minute before tending to my groceries.”

“And this staring, did you find this creepy of any sort?”

“No, it actually felt reassuring somehow. It was more of an absent minded stare.”

“Oh, wonderful! Creepy stares are boring. I hate boring.”

“Alright…” Jessica mumbled, questioning the reliability of Azalea. “Now I got my stuff checked out and I was leaving the store when this security guard stopped me. I recognized him as a regular. He was a guy named Max Sadrios, who apparently worked there. He lectured me about how I shouldn’t have used the machine all by myself. I, of course, had no idea what he was talking about, so he pointed and somehow- somehow, there was nothing. A big sign said the machine was out of order.”

“So he had proof? Camera footage?”

“Yes- that’s just the thing. I denied doing any of this until he showed me the footage.”

“Odd. Do you have any copies of this footage?”

“Oh, I do,” Jessica offered, pulling a thumb drive out of her case. “It has other things on there… relating to this.”

“Brilliant!”

“A week later, I saw them on the bus, in the driver’s seat. I knew it was-”

“You keep saying it, are you suggesting it’s not human?”

“Just… listen.”

“No worries. I will.”

“I knew it was there the moment I stepped on the bus because there was this sense of… peace. Calmness. Well, I think it was that. This time, it had the same suit, just with an old fashioned conductor’s hat. It turned to me and just stared. I questioned nothing at the time, but that could have been how peaceful it was. I had no idea what was going to happen. When the bus was full, the driver- it, drove. I had nothing to do and read my book,” Jessica told. She paused, as if she didn’t know what to say. “You won’t believe me- I’ll save your time by just ending this.”

“No. That would be boring,” Azalea reasoned.

“A moment later, I felt myself being thrown from my seat. The bus had crashed into a tree. Nobody was damaged, though we all had to go to the hospital just to make sure. According to what I heard, the driver suffered a heart attack. A driver that was not who I had seen. Now I can see that something wasn’t right about the whole thing.”

“What do you think this person is? An opinion?”

“I don’t know… and I don’t want to find out. I want it out of my life!”

“No matter,” Azalea mumbled, doodling on his papers. “Continue the story.”

“I reflected on the incident regarding this person in the hospital, so I decided to spend some time with a friend out in another state. A month, specifically. During this time, I didn’t see this person. But eventually, I had to return as my vacation days were over. That’s when I started to not feel calm wherever I saw it.”

“Was it always by itself?”

“Yes,” Jessica answered. “This time, it was a few weeks ago- right here in this coffee shop. I was drinking my daily lunchtime tea when I noticed that something felt different. I had goosebumps, and the air seemed different somehow, like a thick fog had rolled in. Needless to say, I was a little bit scared. That’s when I saw it, just glaring at a wall while pouring boiling hot water into a cup. It just kept glaring and pouring until the steaming water just… Well, it should have burned, but it just kept glaring. After that, it just walked out the shop and everything went back to normal.”

“How not-boring.”

“This time it these last weeks, and by far the worst,” the witness began. “It wasn’t anything in my daily life now. This time, it was my house. I woke up, at six in the morning- I usually wake at eight. My phone was buzzing, and the house’s smart-camera application was sending out notifications. I read them, and they all mentioned suspicious activity outside.”

“Let me guess- that person!”

“Well, no. I checked the app and switched over to live feed, where I saw nothing. I felt the world was different. There seemed more water than air by this point. I sprayed some scents around and it cleared. I got things done at home and I was going to set off when my phone buzzed again, saying the exact same thing as before. This time, I went straight to the window where the camera was placed outside. This time, I saw it. Now, the camera faces a streetlamp so that it cuts through the middle of the video feed. As I watched to see anything, I saw this-this- the person- just appear out of nowhere. I could tell that the width couldn’t have hid behind the pole. I replayed the camera feed and downloaded it- and it was exactly as I saw it. I checked, and I couldn’t see it anywhere. Mind you, I paid very much attention and checked the other cameras.”

“And this is in the thumb drive?”

“Yes. After that, I was ready to go to work. Just as I opened the door, I saw it- this time in my driveway. I hadn’t seen that in the camera feed. I froze in terror- heart pounding and all that. The- it just stayed there, walking up and down idly. No difference. It felt like only a minute, but when I was free from the spell, I ran to my car and drove off to work. When I got there, hours had passed. As I was the only one with a key, I got lectured by the owner who did not understand what I was saying.”

“And this was the most recent one?”

“Sort of. This kept happening every few days or so, so I gave the keys to the restaurant and rented an apartment near. That’s when the most recent incident occurred. I hadn’t seen the person during my time at the apartment until a few days ago. I turned on the television to watch an episode of my favorite show when it- the person appeared on the screen. It just sort of stared. I was locked there an hour until the lights went out and the television disappeared. A city blackout… apparently.”

“And that’s all?”

“Well, yes.”

“I will be looking into this,” Azalea decided, extending a hand. Jessica shook it. “We require your contact information.”

“Oh- here,” Jessica replied, handing Azalea a personal card.

“Just call us,” Azalea started, handing the other a card, “if anything too bad happens.”

With that, they parted ways. One would leave and return to a stable job, while the other would be fined a heavy bill for the amount of damage done to the property.

And out of the corner of Azalea’s eye, something followed the witness out.

Dawn of the Portals  
“We found it!” marveled the young man, who appeared to be some sort of leader. His face was stern, yet his eyes marveled in brilliant design. “A temple of Chalchiuhtlicue- the Aztec God of Water. This temple is completely different in design as you can see-”

“Jack, we really need to be careful,” another cut in. This was Maizie Cloude, a young hacker of around sixteen. She had a bright young face, and wore pigtails adorned with bows. “Remember I had to hack several government agencies to get the team here. Also, we have a boat. Are you gonna tell me what the boat is for, Mister Mayflower.”

“Right, Maizie,” Jack began, “Inform the others to set up camp here. Have the caravan here, while me, you, Leo, and Stacy enter the temple.”

“Me? I hardly know anything about archeological nonsense.” 

“Yes, you’ll need experience, and you’re part of the special team. Plus, more people running the boat is better.”

“Special team?”

“Yes, me and Stacy for archeology, you for research and hacking, and Leo to be our guard.”

The line of cars all came to a stop. Everyone got out and began to set up camp. The diggers began to get to work, as well as the site supervisors, while Jack’s special team prepped the boat. 

“Leo, any threats in the area?” Jack asked, his white hair flowing in the hot wind. 

“Sir,” Leo replied, a slightly bulky man with notable muscles but a clean cut hairstyle, while loading a machine gun, “some rebels are known to hide in this area.”

“Have your men guard everyone, while you come with me.”

“Affirmative, sir!”

A young woman by the name of Stacy Sykes inspected the markings on the temple, perplexed at the different patterns. She wore round glasses with horns on both sides, made to look like the horns of a Carnotaurus. 

“Jack!” Stacy called. “This is peculiar indeed- according to my research, these symbols tell us of a strange story!”

“You can tell us on the boat.”

The boat was prepped, and Jack had some diggers move it inside the temple, where there were marvels. The boat was a simple one, they could sit on deck, or go below deck to small rooms.

“Marvelous! Just as I suspected!” Stacy cheered. “The temple was somehow built atop a river, and this river- goes there!”

Stacy pointed to the center, where everyone saw water running down some steps into an opening that went into the ground. Jack shined a light, revealing it to be a cave.

“Send a drone in,” Jack ordered, “then get the boat down there.”

Swiftly, this was done, and the drone revealed it big enough for the boat. With a bit of coaxing from Leo, the boat managed to be prepped down the downward flowing water. Around them, the sunlight pierced through an open hole, giving the temple a gold paint. Old Aztec pots and devices laid around, as if they had been left in a hurry. There were peculiar skeletons that looked reptilian, probably some sort of sacrifice.

“Jack, boat’s ready,” Leo informed, “are you ready to depart?”

“Yes, let’s go now.”

Leo called for the two others of Jack’s so-called special team. One at a time, they boarded the small boat. Stacy started the boat, while Maizie waited below deck, going over notes provided by Stacy. Leo stood guard, pistol in one hand, AK-47 in the other. Jack launched a few drones to light the area in front. The cave was similar to any other caves, black rock causing darkness, blind fish swimming below. 

“Look at these symbols,” Stacy commented, “what do they mean?”

“Don’t ask me,” Leo chimed in, “I’m just a soldier.”

“Stacy, weren’t you saying something about a story?” Jack recalled.

“Ah, yes,” Stacy replied, “I believe something happened here. The story says of a great battle, and magical rocks that had something to do with the sun- or something round. There were these pictures of reptilian gods, but those must mean some sort of new life or something they found.”

“Now what’s so strange?”

“I checked the material on one of the altars- it’s not like anything seen today! Perhaps this metal has strange properties, and those skeletons looked a whole lot like dinosaur skeletons. But that’s impossible, so it must’ve been large lizards.”

“True enough,” Jack agreed, pointing to a symbol, “if I didn’t know any better, I’d say that’s a picture of a Spinosaurus… But I’m just an Archeologist- Stacy’s both Paleo and Archeo.”

“What is this cave,” Maizie popped in, “why?”

“I suspect inside here, there might be an important artifact,” Jack explained, “or, it might just be some sort of entrance to something else.”

“D’you hear that?” Leo asked, chewing on some gum.

“What?” Maizie replied.

“Listen.”

There appeared to be the sound of water rushing. Unknown to the team, there were a series of drops a few turns away. 

“Sounds like a river, and we are in a river,” Stacy commented.

“No, not the river, that popping sound in the distance behind us.”

But soon, the river drowned out any other noise, and they soon resumed examining the symbols. The symbols had rapidly changed, now appearing to tell a different story.

“Guys,” Maizie asked, “Uh, are any other teams going down here?”

“No,” Jack answered, “only us.”

“Cause I just sent a drone back there, and there’s a boat, and there’s people. The people have guns.”

“The popping!” Leo realized. “Gunfire!”

“Let’s not get too serious,” Jack cut in, “maybe they got bored and followed us-”

Before Jack could finish, a spray of gunfire hit the boat, nearly hitting Jack. The team all dived to cover, hiding from the continuing gunfire.

“What the hell?!” Maizie panicked, “Why are we getting shot at?!”

“I’ll check it out!” Leo shouted back, sneaking a look at whatever was shooting at them. “Three boats! Small, unlike ours! Looks like soldiers are on them!”

“Why are they here?!” Jack questioned.

“No idea, but most likely grave robbers or rebels!”

“Can we stop them?” Stacy panicked.

Leo smiled and held up his machine gun. He gave Jack and Stacy one as well, while the younger Maizie disappeared below deck.

“On three!” Leo ordered. “One, two, three- Now!”

The three leapt up and started firing at the boats. Bullet holes lined the enemy boats, and hit an unlucky raider.

“Cover!” Jack commanded.

“We need a better way to get rid of them!” Stacy yelled, “Any ideas?!”

“Grenades!” Leo yelled back, “Get my grenades!”

Jack nodded and retrieved Leo’s grenades. Bursts of gunfire almost hit Jack’s white hair and coat as he did so. He fired back, taking down his opponent.

“What now?” Jack inquired.

“Let’s take down the cave on them!” Leo decided.

Leo prepared to throw a grenade, when the boat lurched downwards, splashing some water into the boat. In the motion, Leo dropped the unpinned grenade into the water instead.

The lead opponent boat came to a surprise, the grenade causing the water to explode outwards with great force. Jack’s boat lurched down another drop, sending the team to the floor. The enemy boat was sent to a wall by the grenade’s shockwave, destroying it. People scrambled and jumped to the water, where the people on the other two boats saved them.

“To hell with it!” Leo decided, picking up another grenade and throwing it to the cave roof.

The roof exploded in color; the grenade exploded in oranges and reds. The cave crumbled and began to fall. One of the two boats lurched forward, due to the downwards angle, and saved itself from getting crushed. The other boat wasn’t so lucky, as a huge section of the cave came crashing down on it, sending it into a million pieces.

“Guys!” Maizie declared, appearing from below deck, “We got a problem!”

“Not now,” Stacy answered, “we’re dealing with this!”

“Waterfall!”

But alas, the gunfire drowned out Maizie’s warning. Bursts of orange kept appearing, gunshots appearing as holes. But soon, the roaring noise of the waterfall was heard, and both parties took notice.

Jack ran to the front of the boat, where he saw the waterfall. Due to strange glowing crystals, the waterfall glowed purple.

“Everyone hold on!” Jack commanded.

Jack ran to the others, just as the tip began to angle downwards. Stacy threw her gun to the side and ran below decks, then came out with a frightened Maizie. Leo jumped out the boat. Next, Stacy and Maizie jumped out, holding hands. Last, Jack jumped as well, until they were all on the path of the waterfall. 

“What are we doing?!” Maizie gasped, panicking.

“Don’t worry,” Leo assured, “we are gonna survive! Go feet first down the waterfall! Then, swim away immediately!”

“We’re gonna die!”

The four watched as the boat tipped downwards and rushed downwards by the waterfall. 

“No, no!” Maizie panicked.

“Calm down, I’ve done this before,” Leo assured, “well, the last time, nine people died, but still, this waterfall isn’t as tall!”

Everyone screamed as they went over the purple waterfall. It seemed to go on forever when it was only a few seconds. Purple water swirled and danced around them as they fell, giving them an amazing sight if they had looked. Strange fish were also in the waterfall, trying to climb up.

With a deafening splash, the four arrived. Following Leo’s plan, they all swim away, going downstream. Luckily, their boat survived, though it wouldn’t be able to start.

“Let’s not do that again,” Maizie whimpered.

“I… agree…” Leo managed, helping young Maizie up the ruined boat.

“Wait, something isn’t right,” Stacy realized, “where’s the people that were shooting at us?!”

“Maybe their boat retreated,” Jack theorized, shrugging it off.

“More importantly, what’s that?” Maizie stated, pointing at a strange device surrounded by crystals. It was on a small ‘island’ in the center of what this new place was. 

The boat drifted slowly, giving Stacy an opportunity to jump out, swim, and return with the object. It was shaped in an octagon, and it was the size of a tablet’s screen. The artifact had eight crystals, one for a side. It was made of a peculiar metal, and it looked very futuristic.

“That makes no sense,” puzzled Jack, “Aztecs wouldn’t be able to make something so… futuristic… ”

Stacy gave it a tap, when it suddenly made a noise, like a computer starting up. The metal drew back to reveal some sort of electronic screen.

“I don’t think this is from the Aztecs…” Stacy muttered, “maybe it’s a prank by someone or something?”

“I checked, we’re the first people here,” Maizie informed. Stacy handed it over, and Maizie prodded it. Soon, she found a circuit board.

“What the hell is this that?!” Leo commented, now interested.

“Maizie, does it look like anything modern?” Stacy questioned.

“No, it doesn’t… and I know circuit boards.”

A ray of sunlight dawned on the four, and they turned to see the exit. It led into the jungle and a river that gradually became smaller. Colorful birds danced around while howler monkeys played. A toucan cawed and landed on the ruined boat.

“I’ll try to contact camp with the radio,” Leo told.

Jack nodded in approval when he heard the click of a gun. Out of the shadows, men and women appeared, all dressed in uniforms and masks. Along the right sleeve read the words ‘Scorpion’.

“Who are you people?!” Jack demanded.

“Hand over the artifact!” the leader demanded. The voice was feminine.

“Never! It belongs to us!” Leo sharply shot, “Well, to whatever museum gets it from us.”

“You have no idea what that is!”

“Well, do you?” Stacy inquired.

“We actually, we don’t. Now hand it over-”

Before the masked woman could say any more, a dart appeared on her chest. Around them, the four saw darts appear on the other soldiers. 

“What just happened?” Maizie blurted, “Those darts came from above!”

The four looked up to see a helicopter. It was completely silent, surprising for a helicopter. All black, and on the side were the letters DAE.

A figure appeared with a megaphone, shouting: “Hello down there! Jack Mayflower, I believe?!”

“Yes!” Jack shouted back. “Who are you people?!”

“My name is Agent Milo Krassant of the DAE- the Department of Anomalous Events!”

“What?!” Jack questioned. “We can’t hear you that well!”

The man repeated.

“Croissants? Food? What does that have to do with anything?!” Stacy yelled.

“No! Just wait!”

Agent Milo Krassant let down a long rope ladder and beckoned for the four to climb up. With no other choice, the four protagonists climbed. 

Now inside the stealth helicopter, the agent explained who he was. Milo wore a black soldier uniform and had short hair, almost like a mohawk.

“So the DAE, what is it exactly?” Maizie asked. “I’ve never heard of it, and I can hack the government!”

“We investigate and fix the more classified subjects,” Milo explained. “We work with governments that choose to help us. Think of us like a secret Interpol.”

“What are we doing here?” Jack inquired. “Can we get back to our archeology?”

“Jack, your diggers, are…” Milo began, sighing, “dead. Scorpion killed them all. We can’t send you back, and well, we’re here for the artifact as well.”

“Wait, why do you know my name?”

“We’ve been monitoring you and your team for a while now. Jack Mayflower, the archeologist that believes in strange theories. Stacy Sykes, archeologists and paleontologist, connecting dinosaur bones to myths. Maizie Cloude, Jack’s way into any archeological site ever. Or Stacy’s dinosaur sites. Lastly, Leo Weiss, a mercenary hired by Jack when he put all of you together. Leo has stayed with you, mostly for the interesting things that you’ve done and the money.”

“Who are you people?” Leo sputtered. “Why do you know all this stuff.”

“Like I said, our agency has been trailing this team for a while, looking to either recruit you or eliminate you,” Agent Milo Krassant explained. “Now, I believe we’ll recruit you. Whether you like it or not, the artifact has made you the enemy of whoever those people you shot at you. So, you are getting hired.”

“Right, who were they?” Maizie inquired. “And where are we going?”

“A mysterious group called Scorpion. We are going to Wyvern Base. You won’t believe it, but it’s a giant floating airship that recently completed construction. Xavier Krassant, my brother, will answer your questions.”

“Who is that?” Stacy questioned.

“You’ll see, your new team leader. Welcome to your new job.”

“But-”

“No more questions,” Milo decided, “Welcome, to the D-A-E.”

Later that night, Xavier met with his brother, inside a Wyvern Base conference room.

“Okay,” Milo began, a stern look on his face, “these people are not who I wanted. I had to do last-minute research to find out who they were! Who are they?!”

“Don’t worry,” Xavier began, “I have assembled a team of weirdos.”

“Wait, what?!”

“First up is Jack Mayflower, an amazing leader, with many pistols, and epic skills. Second, is Maizie Cloude, a sixteen year old hacker, who hacks video games, and the government- But mostly video games. Third, we have Stacy Sykes, an insane paleontologist, and archeologist, who believes everything is connected- and that the sun is fake. Oh, and she dates everyone. Fourth, is Leo Weiss, our pet mercenary-”

“Wait, what?! No!”

“No, I’m not done yet- some more are needed,” Xavier seriously resumed. “Two pilots that have amazing ‘shipping’ evidence. Then, a doctor, but like, someone who starts with a ‘D’, because reasons. Last, is an epic agent that seems like a spy, but probably isn’t. But like, maybe.”

“Xavier, this is stupid!”

“Silence, for I have assembled a team of weirdos!”

Fairchild  
Caleb Azalea regretted destroying the property of the coffee shop. Well, almost. He didn’t really care. Though, he did break a chair by setting it on fire, then had spilled bubble liquid all over the floor, causing someone to slip and fall. And so here he was, sitting in an office with the owner across a table, and Azalea calling his boss, a man known only as ‘Director’ through his phone.

The Director was not pleased. 

But as the Director had no choice, the Azalea’s little mishap was paid for and no charges were pursued, provided Azalea never return to the coffee shop.

Nobody except a select few knew who the Director was, just that even the founder took orders from the person. Everything was mostly run by the founder of the investigative agency, a bright young man named Julian Page.

The service itself was a sizable building which one random day, started construction. A year later, it was complete. This was the Julian Page Investigative Service, a service that dedicated itself to collect stories and investigate, as the name suggested.

What also came with the service, were employees already working there. People who were seemingly nobodies came with the service, except for the few interns that were selected. 

People were confused, as nobody knew why or who wanted the service created. At first, people were reluctant, but in a month, they had risen to popularity for their cheap services and their stunning accuracy.

Except there was a catch. Nobody could simply walk-in or contact the agency. They, it seemed, found you.

“I need a Caleb Azalea to report to my office,” a man announced. “Now!”

The man was none other than the founder himself, Julian Page. With devilish eyes, pure night hair, demonic glasses, and a pointed chin, he ran the service with an iron fist. Well, except for Taco Tuesday- everybody got along on Tuesdays.

Caleb Azalea rose from his wooden desk, which contained a laptop with a transcript of the conversation with Jessica Io, the woman stalked by a genderless figure. Caleb sighed, said goodbye to the collection of doodles etched into the wood, hundreds of small crocheted teddy-bears, bubble liquid, and began to walk away to his presumed doom.

Azalea opened the door to Page’s office, where the devilish Julian Page sat on his throne-like sofa, on one side of a table. Sitting across the table was a woman. Azalea knew her, a friend named Paris Chambers. In contrast to Azalea, Paris did not bother with silly habits and was always straight to the point.

Azalea met her dark eyes, waved hello, and awaited orders from Julian Page, who was mixing coffee aimlessly.

“Ah, Caleb Azalea,” Julian noticed. “Meet Paris Chambers.”

“We know each other,” Paris informed, a certain quality of seriousness to her tone.

“If this is about the coffee shop, I am extremely sorry that-”

“This is exactly about the coffee shop, Azalea!” Julian lectured. “Your antics in Kintain and other places have cost us hundreds of dollars! Nobody gets our cost that high!”

“If I may,” Paris began, thinking of ways to defend Caleb, “I will vouch for Caleb. Though his antics may be costing us, he does get the job done.”

“Ah, Chambers, you are indeed correct,” Julian complimented. “Don’t worry, Azalea won’t be fired. See, I need someone to keep Azalea from wasting money, and that someone is you, Paris Chambers.”

“Oh? So the two of us will be on an investigation?” Paris inquired.

“It has come to my attention that there may be some truth to the happenings in Kintain,” Julian began. “I believe you two are up for the job. One notorious for his antics, and, in contrast, someone who gets straight to the point.”

“Brilliant!” Azalea cheered, clapping with no rhythm or reason. “Do you mind if I blow bubbles?”

“Caleb, no!” Paris growled.

“Oh,” Caleb sighed, putting down his container of bubble liquid back into his strange suit that seemingly had thousands of pockets, “In that case, where are we going next?”

“Paris Chambers will be heading to a small city in Florida, and I’ll have someone email you the details.”

“Alone?” Paris questioned. “Isn’t the point to keep us together.”

“I’m afraid Caleb’s antics might be required. I’ve arranged himself to…” Julian began, cutting off as he mumbled something.

“I’m sorry, what?” Azalea voiced.

“A… a cow. Azalea, you will be investigating a cow.”

“What?! Interrogating a cow?! Brilliant!”

“Founder Page, how is Azalea going to interrogate a cow?”

“Let’s just say it’s punishment- and it isn’t a cow he’ll be an interrogation, it’s a farmer. Don’t worry, Azalea’s just collecting a story, nothing to do with your actual investigation,” Julian clarified. “Let’s just say the witness won’t be entertained by Azalea’s antics.”

“Can I give the cow yogurt-”

“Get out of my office! I-I mean, dismissed!”

Azalea scrambled to his feet, ran to the door, and bounced out the room. Paris sighed and followed.

“Azzie, what exactly happened in this coffee shop?”

“Don’t call me that! It’s either, Caleb, Azalea, or The Great One.”

“Whatever Azzie, now let’s grab some tacos before we part ways.”

Three hours later, Azalea departed to interrogate a cow, while the more relevant Paris departed to collect another story, one relevant to the investigation. According to the message Chambers was sent, they were dealing with an abduction with mysterious circumstances. Details were forecasted to below, but the algorithm decided it was relevant.

Later in the day, Chambers found herself ringing a doorbell far above the ground in a poorly maintained apartment.

“Coming!” a muffled voice yelled.

A moment went by as whoever was inside rushed to the door. But soon enough, the door was opened, revealing an older man with dirty, messed, hair who also wore an old discolored sweater. 

“I’m… you can call me Chambers,” Paris began, “and I’m here about your advertisement.”

“Oh- sorry, if I knew I’d be getting a new job I’d be wearing a suit-”

“Oh, I’m not here about any sort of job. I’m an investigator.”

“Oh… I can’t believe somebody noticed! I still don’t have any money-”

“That is not a problem. Now, may I enter. The aircon out here is terrible, and far too warm for my tastes.”

“Oh, sure- but it’s freezing in here, so don’t be surprised.”

Paris silently thanked Azalea for convincing her to wear a trench coat to the mission, claiming it would make her look professional. 

Paris followed the man into the apartment. The man invited her to sit on an old brown sofa across a table, and the man sat on the opposite end, on another old sofa.

“Now, your name?”

“We’re going straight to business? I thought there would be some small talk or something?”

“I know this investigation is hard for you, but the faster we get this done, the better it will be for you. Now, your name, please?” repeated Chambers.

“Quinn Fairchild.”

“Good. Now, your note mentioned the kidnapping of your son, Harry Fairchild. Can we begin?”

“Do you want tea? Or snacks-”

“No. Delays will only worsen the… condition.”

“Alright,” Quinn sighed, preparing to begin the story. In response, Chambers took out a notepad and a pen, “it all happened almost a month ago. As usual, I was taking my son, Harry to the school nearby. I believe it’s called Lizardot Elementary.”

“Grade?” Chambers inquired.

“First,” Quinn told.

“Continue.”

“I sent him to school that day, and everything appeared to be fine. Yet I couldn’t shake off this feeling that something was going to happen. Of course, I wrote that down in my journal. Nothing happened that day, just that odd feeling.”

“Describe this feeling.”

“It wasn’t exactly fear, it was like… I can’t explain it. The feeling sort of reassured me as well.”

“Well, then it’s a sort of an incomplete fear?”

“Yes, a not-fear, is what I can describe. I know you won’t believe any of this, but please bear with me. Please.”

“I will, but please, get on with the story.”

“Nothing happened, everything was fine that day. The only reason I remember that day is because I wrote that down in my journal. I think the real problem began the next day. I sent off Harry to school again, as usual. This time, I didn’t have any feeling of any kind that might’ve related to the feeling.”

“How strange, and may I have this journal? It may prove useful in our-”

“No! It’s personal.”

“Alright, continue.”

“At exactly two-twelve, I got a phone call from the school. I wrote this down, which is why I’m sure,” began Quinn. “The school notified me that good old Harry was acting strange, and that his behavior was unlike him. I, of course, asked what had happened. The other person said that his friends- he’s quite popular, you see- and anyways, his friends said he didn’t talk to them and spent time facing the fence, talking to himself. But his friends said he wasn’t talking to himself, but one side of a conversation.”

“And you’re sure this isn’t normal?”

“Yes, I know my child well.”

“What did you think at the time?”

“Nothing- I thought he might be sick.”

Paris pondered a moment, then wrote something down and highlighted it. “Continue, if you will.”

“So I asked my boss to leave, and she let me. I drove to the school, where I was sent to the infirmary to speak with the nurse. The nurse said nothing was wrong and it could’ve just been a phase. I was allowed to take him home, which is what I wanted.”

“Your son, the witness… is he reliable?”

“I think so? It all sounded so fake… but now… I don’t know.”

“Please continue,” Paris told.

“I will,” Quinn sighed, preparing to resume the story, “I took him home, not this apartment, but a better one across the street. I asked him why he was talking to himself, and he answered. I knew this could be important, so I recorded it on my phone.”

“Your phone? Can we listen to the recording?”

“No, my phone vanished. No idea where it is. The only record of the incident is the police report… and the journal.”

“I’ll note that,” Chambers noted. “Please resume.”

“He told me that he was talking to someone- a character from his favorite television show- Fun Science Now! He said the main character, a bipedal humanoid rhino I’ve always found creepy named Gerald. He said Gerald told him to come to the fence to just talk. I know Harry, and he should have known not to trust strangers. The police even tested him on stranger danger and he passed!”

“Let me guess- a strange feeling?”

“Precisely! He told me he just knew it was Gerald the Rhino from the show. It just felt he knew it was him.”

“Do continue. Oh, and I’ve been recording this conversation, is this alright?”

“It’s fine. I need to know what happened.”

“Then,” Paris began, sucking in air, “resume.”

“I wasn’t creeped out at this, and I chalked it up to an active imagination, which I now realize is odd, as he didn’t exactly have one. Now, that was the first day of this Gerald encounter. The next time happened exactly one week later,” Quinn began, holding himself from tears. “According to the teacher that had been sent to keep an eye on the students, Harry and a crowd were playing tag when he just stopped mid-run, and just walked towards the fence. The others were too busy to notice this. The teacher didn’t do anything but kept a note in his head. The teacher only noticed something was amiss when it was dismissal time and a full ten minutes passed when other teachers realized Harry never returned. A monitor found him still talking to Gerald.”

“I don’t like how this is going,” Paris commented. “As a child, I hated kids’ shows. Always creeped me out.”

“Not me, I loved them. When dear old Harry was asked why he was still there, he said only a minute had passed, and that he was confused. He showed them his watch, which indeed showed a minute had passed, and that it was still in working order. I was called, but this time I didn’t pick him up. At home, I yet again chalked it up to an overactive imagination. Reflecting now, I shouldn’t have felt that. It’s as if it was calm, normal.” 

“The watch, do you have it?”

“That’s the thing- I-I don’t. I asked for the watch, which had been given to someone a day later. I was told that I had already taken it up yesterday, hours after I had picked up Harry. I was confused because I wasn’t there yesterday- I was at a restaurant.”

“Is this proven?”

“It is. The police reports confirmed all of this. There’s a video of the two of us eating a burger.”

“And the next week, it was the incident, was it not?”

“It was,” Quinn mumbled. He prepared himself and spoke once more. “It was. That day, the teachers kept a close eye on him at recess. Nothing happened, and he just played with his friends. It’s what happened during the pick-up time.”

“And this, the incident, was recorded on camera.”

“Yes. The camera showed me, but it wasn’t me picking up Harry. Harry got into a car exactly like mine. A few minutes later, I drove up, but all the teachers were confused. They said I had picked up Harry. My camera on my car proved that they were wrong. At once, the police were called- and a search began.”

“This has been most peculiar. What next?”

“For days, nobody could find him. School was canceled, and all the parents helped search everywhere. We’re a small town, so there was a lot of pointing fingers. But in the end, everyone was cleared, and just as we were all just about drained, he appeared. Just… walked into the police station. Completely normal- except what he said. Harry told us that he got picked up and that I, or whoever took him said he got a reward and took him to a circus where he met Gerald. We told him that wasn’t me and that days had passed. He went silent after that.”

“This circus?”

“T-there was no circus,” Quinn stammered. “After we mentioned that, something changed. There was no Harry. Now… it doesn’t seem like him. Just empty. And that’s it.”

“Can I see Harry? You said you have him here.”

“Harry stayed quiet the next week, and I got fired from my job. Whenever I was at my job, I would be doing it right when I would just fall asleep for a minute, and when I woke, my work was all wrong. And I’ve been here, just here, ever since.”

“Okay. I need to see him.”

Quinn sighed, went to the kitchen, made tea, and drank it. He then made his way to a room and opened the door. “H-Harry, there’s someone here to see you.”

Paris looked in, seeing a boy that had not showered yet had an oddly clean room. Nothing was touched, except the bed, which was now dirtied. His hair was long, scraggly and dry, while his eyes appeared empty, staring into nowhere. “Hello? I’m Chambers.”

No answer.

“It’s like this for the past month.”

“Well, there’s nothing I can do. I’ll take a picture, then I’ll see what my agency can do.”

“Thank you. By the way, who do you work for?”

“Julian Page Investigative Services. We send our best wishes.”

“I see. Please, help us.”

“We will,” Paris assured, “but I can’t do anything more now. I’ll be taking my 

leave- the more time I waste, the worse.”

“Okay.”

Quinn led Paris out of the apartment, where they shook hands. Paris wished them well and waved goodbye. She then called an Uber and awaited the taxi’s arrival.

Back in the apartment, something awakened.

Sukie Everlie  
Meanwhile, we return to the abducted archeological team, where they finally arrive at Wyvern Base.

Wyvern Base was indeed large, and all four marveled at its immense size. It looked like a metal island in the sky, and it would have been crawling with people, except that not many agents had been chosen for Wyvern Base. According to Agent Milo Krassant, it was the size of a small city. The base could move slowly, but effectively.

The stealth helicopter landed in a landing pad, and the agent opened the door.

“Brother!” called a man. “You’ve got the new recruits.”

“Yes, my retrieval team just saved them from Scorpion- here they are. Now, I’ve got a meeting with the Storm of Angels Council of Five, so bye.”

It was nighttime, and the weary four exited the stealth helicopter. 

“Hi newbies,” the man greeted, “follow me.”

“You are?” Stacy inquired.

The man began to explain as they walked, “My name is Xavier Krassant, your new leader- sorry Jack. You’ve all been chosen for your abilities and ideas-”

“We know why we’ve been chosen, Milo explained,” Maizie told.

“Perfect, now, do any of you know a person named Sukie Evelie?”

“Sukie… Ah!” Stacy began, “I believe she was doing a theory on geology and disappeared one day.”

“Good, we have her.”

“You people took her?!”

“Yes, she’s quite happy. But, Scorpion abducted her. Next question- Any of you study dinosaurs?”

“Me!” Stacy chimed.

“Sorry, what is Scorpion and why these questions?” Leo inquired.

“You’ll see,” Xavier started, “now just follow me to the plane.”

“Huh?” everyone voiced.

Soon, they saw an extremely large plane, all grey and dark. As they stepped in, they truly realized how big it was. The plane had three floors, and on the lowermost floor, there were rooms, which were quite large, and just had a bed, a table, bathroom, and a lamp. Additionally, there was a briefing room which was also used to play video games. Xavier informed them that more people would arrive, so they had to share rooms – Jack with Leo, and Maizie and Stacy. Xavier led them around, and introduced them to their pilots, Justin Wang and Lillian (Lily) Rulu.

The second floor was split into four parts, a kitchen, a dining room, a lab, and a spare room. The third floor contained an armoury, where all sorts of weapons were. Strangely, there were more tranquilizer guns than regular guns. It also had a room filled with computers, which Xavier explained would be all for Maizie. Another room contained server boxes more advanced than any Maizie had. According to the agent, the boxes contained a treasure trove of information. Next, was a medical room. There was a gym where they could exercise, and lastly, a large, strange room filled with nothing in the center, all surrounded by glass. 

“Is that for science?” Stacy commented.

“It’s the containment room,” explained Xavier.

Stacy asked more about the room, but Xavier said it would be explained tomorrow. The agent led his new team to the kitchen, and they all ate a hearty dinner. Jack, Stacy, Maizie, and Leo were silent, not sure what to say. Xavier and the pilots made small talk.

When their dinner was complete, they all went to their cabins, changed, and went to sleep.

Little did they know that the next day would be full of action.

The orange sun shined through the cold day. Due to the altitude of Wyvern Base, it was cold and snowy. Maizie awoke and draped open the curtains. She looked around and did not detect Stacy, who had gone to eat breakfast. Today, there were more people, and she could see them all over the aircraft platform.

People arrived from stealth helicopters and silent planes. There were all sorts of people from all over the world. It was a strange sight to see, people from all over the world, and animals, too.

Maizie got up, brushed her teeth with a new automatic brush that was apparently provided by Wyvern Base. She then left the room. Changing clothes was the last thing on anyone’s minds.

Maizie found the others in the dining room, where they were all having breakfast. They were all talking together, getting to know each other.

“Oh, Maizie!” Xavier called. “Join us.”

“A-alright, but how do I order food?”

“Drones, Maizie, drones!” Leo exclaimed happily, “We’ve all got these tablets to order anything we want. Then, a drone will arrive from a machine that makes food somewhere on this aircraft!”

“Precisely!” Xavier cheered, handing Maizie a tablet.

Maizie chose the food app and ordered a smoothie and pancakes. Next, she sat down to eat. Just thirty seconds later, a drone arrived with a package. After collection, the drone returned to where it came from.

“Cool!” she marvelled.

And so everyone ate, making talk along the way as well.

“So what’s the deal with all the people outside?” Stacy inquired.

“As you know, Wyvern Base was recently constructed as a DAE base in the sky,” Xavier began, “Technically, this base is for containment of Anomalous Objects and Entities. It’s similar to our sister organization, the JPIS, which you shouldn’t worry about. The commotion outside is because we are bringing in agents and workers here. We’ll be giving you a tour around Wyvern Base after breakfast.”

“Cool, but what exactly is our job here?” Jack questioned.

“Hmm? Well, you’ll see. But, I’ll give you a hint- dinosaurs.”

“Wait, but only Stacy knows about dinosaurs,” Maizie pointed out.

“Well, the Aztecs do have something to do with this, and Jack’s all about that. Maizie will hack into Scorpion and Leo well, he gets to blow stuff up. Don’t worry, we’ll have more agents on this plane, which is why the rooms are shared.”

“I see.”

“Xavier, when do we leave for the mission?” came a voice from another table. It was Justin, the pilot, who was having breakfast with Lily.

“After the tour.”

“So, what exactly is this job?” Leo questioned.

Soon, they all finished breakfast, and Xavier led them off the plane to Wyvern Base. Even the pilots joined them, not having been to Wyvern Base before. They made their way to a large building.

Inside, they saw agents tapping card passes or scanned tablets onto machines.

“This is the sign-in area,” Xavier explained, “just let the machine scan your tablets.”

Jack, Stacy, Maizie, and Leo did that, while the two pilots and Xavier used card passes to enter. After the scan, they were confronted with shops to the left and right from them. In front, were eight elevators.

“Follow me,” Xavier beckoned, “now, the elevators are all the same, we don’t have any secret elevators or anything.”

They all entered the elevator where Xavier pressed the button for the fourteenth floor. Currently, they were on the fifteenth floor, and there were three floors above them, though they were just for paperwork. Other buildings were just restaurants, flight check-ins, and labs. The real magic was inside the floating island, the fourteenth floor and below.

The elevator slowly moved downwards, letting the people inside see everything around through the glass, which the elevator was made of.

“Now,” Xavier began, stepping out, “welcome to Sector One- floors fourteen to tweleve.”

“What’s it for?” Lily asked.

“It’s the cafeterias, but we’ve had our breakfast already,” Xavier explained, continuing. “Over on the sides, there’s a great view through the clearest window ever.”

They retreated into the elevator and travelled to Sector Two, which was floors eleven and ten. Xavier explained that these were where the researchers worked and researched on the objects that were placed here.

“Now for Sector Three, nine through four- the agency training program, schools, and rooms. It’s more of a familial thing, but that’s where one would find the pools, arcade, and other recreational activities,” Xavier explained, then going to the last sector. “This last sector is the containment zone. This is where we put our anomalous objects. Now there is an extra floor, but that’s under construction.”

Everyone nodded, and now that the tour was over, they travelled up the slow elevator and returned to their plane. 

“Who are you?!” Xavier exclaimed, shouting at a man in a dark green coat. Beside him, there was a younger man with light blue hair and carried a briefcase. “Get out of my plane!”

“Calm it, Agent Krassant,” the one who wore the dark green coat addressed, “my name is Agent Daniel Quall-”

“-and I’m Agent Kitten,” finished the other.

“Okay, now get out of my plane!”

“Agent Krassant, we are here to assist your first mission,” Daniel explained.

“So you’ve found Sukie?”

“Yes,” Kitten chimed.

“Wait a minute,” Stacy cut in, “your name is… Kitten?”

“He refuses to be called any other name,” Agent Napoleon explained.

All of them went into the plane’s briefing room. Daniel Napoleon inserted a flash drive into a large television. Xavier instructed them to sit down and stay quiet.

“Welcome team, today we will be saving Sukie Everlie from the clutches of Scorpion. We will be traveling to a small Egypt town, which is a front for Scorpion. That is where we will extract Sukie and gather intel on Scorpion.”

“What is that? Scorpion?” Leo inquired.

“An organization that believes humans have gone too far and are trying to replace humans with animals and eradicate us humans,” Dan explained, then he continued, “you have all been chosen for this mission, and if it works, Sukie will join this team. Now the plan is that it will be a silent attack- Maizie will deactivate their systems, Jack, Stacy, and Kitten will slip in, Leo, me, and Xavier will be distracting the guards and leading them away. All agreed?”

Everyone had to do so.

Justin and Lily got to the cockpit, where the plane now began to take off.

Agent Napoleon gave Maizie information on Scorpion systems. Stacy and Jack sparred and trained in the gym. Kitten unlocked his briefcase and revealed two kittens, who he played with. Leo and Dan talked of the plan, while lastly, Xavier went up to the cockpit to relax with the pilots.

Hours later, the plane was embraced by the dry desert air. Looking down, anyone could see the false town of Uniforge.

“Prepare to cloak,” Lily informed.

“Affirmative,” Justin responded, “on three.”

“One, two, three,” Lily counted, “Now!” 

In the skies, the massive airplane rippled and began to change. Light began to reflect different angles until the plane wasn’t visible.

“Land nearby,” Xavier ordered.

The two pilots landed a healthy distance away from the fake town. Everyone geared up and prepared for the mission. Jack, Stacy, and Kitten all sat in a military jeep, awaiting the ramp to activate. Dan, Leo, and Xavier sat in another jeep.

“Now!” Maizie declared, pressing a button, deactivating Scorpion security. Security footage would now loop for an hour.

Justin activated the ramp, and both jeeps drove off, into the hot desert.

“Heyo!” a guard yelled, yelling at the groups, from a tower. “Your business?”

“Hmm, this,” Leo declared, throwing a customized shockwave grenade.

The grenade went inside the tower and detonated, sending its inhabitants flying everywhere. It deactivated and a large gate slid open.

The two groups nodded to each other as they all disembarked from the vehicles. They now were entering the false town, which had been surrounded by the gate and fences.

“The plan?” Jack asked.

“I’ll throw a shockwave grenade, drawing guards to our location,” Leo explained.

“And you guys head into that lab,” Dan finished.

Jack’s team took cover behind a building. Leo threw three shockwave grenades, alerting security.

“Run for cover!” ordered Xavier, raising up his gun and firing.

Xavier’s team took cover around the area, firing at the guards with graceful expertise. 

“Shush,” Kitten shushed, “someone is coming.”

Around the corner, a guard arrived. Kitten kicked him, somehow appearing from thin air. He took the guard’s gun away, and launched a well timed uppercut, sending the poor guard to the ground. Last, Kitten shot two silenced darts into the guard.

“Non-lethal TSC gun,” Kitten explained, “Tranquilizer Scan and Control.”

Away from them, the others were doing a great job, defeating the opposition with the TSC guns, which were small pistols. The dart would hit, scan for the amount to be injected, and release the toxin.

“Now?” Stacy inquired.

“Now!” Kitten ordered.

Jack’s team rushed out, avoiding contact with the guards. They went into the air-conditioned lab, where three guards surrounded them. Kitten nodded and fired the TSC gun into one, kicked the other, and shot the last. The one who was kicked launched a punch at Kitten, who ducked and pressed his fingers at certain nerve points, causing the woman to freeze in place.

Kitten cleared the area, making use of the tables and shelves for cover. The rest of the team simply heard the screams of terrified guards being defeated by the mysterious Kitten.

“Where did you learn all this?” Jack asked, marvelling.

“I grew up in Leviathan Base, which is underwater. I paid a lot of attention to martial arts and assasination classes,” the strange young man explained. “Agent Quall, my mentor, taught me lots of things as well.”

“There,” Stacy pointed.

Beyond a glass door, they saw a young woman being ordered by a large man with science goggles to activate some sort of machine. Kitten managed to read their lips.

“The man- a scientist is ordering Sukie- the young woman, to activate a… time displacement machine. Sukie isn’t saying anything at all.”

“What are we waiting for?!” Jack whispered sharply. “Let’s finish this mission!”

“Agreed.”

Kitten used his training and kicked open the door, surprising the guards and a man, who was focusing on the peculiar machine. Kitten shot a guard, punched the other, found one far away who was raising up a machine gun, which he threw a knife at. The knife hit the guard’s throat, spraying blood everywhere and distracting the other guards.

Jack and Stacy fired their TSC guns, defeating the distracted guards. At this point, the scientist activated a grenade, which he threw. Then, the man retreated, leaving the room. Kitten was locked in combat when the explosive detonated.

Kitten was dangerously near the explosion, sending him… into the explosion? The explosion sent everything to all the sides, but then sucked everything back. Now, there was an amazing sight.

The machine began to jolt with electricity, somehow coming to life. Screens read random numbers and letters until it finally stopped, saying Greece, Pliocene.

“Ow,” Kitten winced, though mostly unaffected, “what’s happening?”

In the center of the machine, a small purple sphere was swirling, slowly growing larger as dust surrounded it. Bursts of color swimmed in the coloring as it grew. Branches of purple electricity shot at objects, and once they were hit, the objects were sucked into the now large, purple sphere.

“W-what the hell is t-that?!” Jack stammered.

“No idea!” Stacy responded.

The researcher Sukie jumped at the three, trying to push them away from the branching purple electricity. Alas, a branch of purple coiled around her as she did so, causing her to bounce in shock, dropping her glasses.

“No! We need you!” Kitten shot, grabbing his hand on hers.

Unfortunately, that did not work, because the force of the sphere was great, and it dragged both Sukie and Kitten in. Before the remaining two could react, branches of purple gripped them, one appearing on Jack’s chest, and on Stacy as well. The two screamed as the glowing sphere absorbed them. Due to the unsuspected force, they all dropped their guns.

“Guys!” Leo hollered, entering the room with the sphere.

There was no answer.

Sukie, Kitten, Jack, and Stacy found themselves lying in a mossy cave of some sort. They were perplexed as to how they got there. 

“Ow, where are we?” Kitten mumbled, “Sukie? We were here to save you!”

Sukie nodded, finding replacement glasses from a bag.

“Where are we?” Stacy asked nobody.

Sukie reached into her bag and gave her a paper. On it, was a report about something called Geologic Time Shift. She pointed at the section that said, “The user will find themselves nearby the Time Portal, a radius of one to two miles”.

“What? Time Portal?” Stacy questioned, “That makes no sense!”

Sukie began to exit the cave, slowly walking through the swamp. She then pointed to a section of clouds above a hill, where there was a faint purple glow.

“I think that’s how we go back,” Kitten theorized.

Sukie nodded, never uttering a sound. In response, Kitten, Stacy, and Jack followed her, walking into the swamp, which was deep enough to reach up to the waist of a man.

Little did they know a fearsome creature watched. 

It slid through the murky waters of the swamp, the dark water hiding the large creature. It snuck through the swamp, which only barely contained its size, until it was a short distance away from Jack.

The creature raised up and hissed loudly.

“What was that?!” Jack yelled, spinning around.

The creature was revealed to be a giant snake, who hissed. This was no regular snake, for this was Laophis, the largest, venomous snake.

The snake spit venom at Jack, who backed away.

“Uh oh,” Stacy gasped.

At the sound of Stacy, the Laophis struck at Stacy, but missed due to a rock which Kitten had thrown.

“Run!” Kitten commanded. “I’ll keep it busy.”

Kitten drew an electroshock extendable baton from one of his coat pockets. He pressed an orange button, extending it. 

“Alright, come at me!” he taunted.

The giant snake reared its head backwards and struck with blinding speed. Luckily, Kitten was faster, intercepting the snake midway, shocking it. The shock angered the creature. Next, the giant snake spit burning venom at the agile Kitten, who jumped to the right of the creature and struck its body.

Kitten ran as the creature writhed from the shock of electricity. Soon, he caught up with the others, who were almost at the hill. Meanwhile, the snake followed fast and swift.

“There!” Jack piped. “That glowing sphere!”

“That’s how we get back.” Stacy guessed.

They began to climb up the hill, where the glowing time portal awaited. Behind them, the snake followed. But now, the Laophis had lost an interest in the humans, and now was interested in the glowing sphere.

“Wait, something’s happening!” Stacy noticed, pointing at the nearby time portal.

Sukie nodded and handed her a piece of paper that said something about the time portal closing.

“What?! It’s gonna close?!” Kitten gasped. “Run! Now!”

The four ran up the hill, but alas, the so-called time portal was beginning to close. The branches of coiling purple began to retreat inside the sphere, and the sphere was slowly becoming smaller. 

“Ready?” Stacy asked.

Everyone nodded, but before anyone could enter, the snake crept and hissed, startling everyone. It prepared to strike, and struck as fast as lightning, sinking teeth and venom into Kitten, who gasped in pain and fell to the ground, falling down the hill. Before they could deal with the creature, a coil of purple swirled around the snake and dragged it in.

“We need to get Kitten!” Jack commanded.

Dust swirled all around it as the sphere shrunk, while Jack, Stacy, and the silent Sukie ran down to save Kitten. At last, the sphere grew large and then small. A shockwave blasted everything around it as the sphere sucked itself into oblivion. 

“No!” Jack yelled, just as the time portal closed.

“What now?!” Stacy yelled, yelling at the skies.

Kitten moaned in pain as he lost consciousness.

On the other side of the time portal, Leo, Dan, and Xavier were trying to find Jack’s team.

“Something’s happening!” Leo worried, pointing to the time portal, which was closing.

“Uh oh,” Xavier muttered.

The portal finished the pattern of closing and sent a shockwave all around it. It was now gone.

Suddenly, Dan ran into the room, having just reviewed some security footage.

“They went in the sphere!” Dan yelled. “Or was dragged in!”

“Well, it’s gone now,” informed Leo.

“There must be something we can do,” Xavier suspected, “get Maizie here! Maybe she can repair all this… madness.”

Leo ran out, defeating some guards. In a moment, he returned with the young Maizie.

“So? What happened?” Maizie asked.

“Look at this,” Dan told her, showing her the security footage.

“What?!”

“We believe it’s some sort of portal, can you activate it again?” Xavier inquired.

“I think I can.”

With no time to waste, Maizie got right on the job, checking wires, and machines. She repaired computers and broke into the programs. That’s when the snake appeared, hissing loudly. It prepared to strike when a dart hit the beast, sending it two the floor. Maizie continued working.

“Are you sure this will work?” Leo asked, “I could just blow it up and see what happens.”

“Trust me,” Maizie responded.

On the other side, the four sat in despair. Suddenly, the dust began to swirl and glow a faint soft purple.

“Look!” Stacy squealed, “The sphere!”

“Amazing…” Jack marvelled.

Sukie nodded silently.

The portal swirled and became the glowing sphere. The lightning-like purple coils swirled around them and brought them in and-

-they stepped out the other side, back into the present.

“Quick!” Stacy shrieked, “Kitten’s been bit by a very big snake!”

“Don’t worry, we’ve found the snake and caught it. I’ll have Justin and Lily make a cure so the antidote will be ready on the plane,” Xavier assured, “I’ve sent samples to them by drone.”

“Oh by the way,” Stacy began, remembering something, “does Sukie talk?”

“Yes, but only to certain people,” Dan informed, remembering Sukie’s file.

“So, what exactly is this job?” Leo questioned, very worried.

“DAE Team-127, or as I like to call it, the Dinosaur Containment Unit.”

Angler Fish  
The man scrambled for his phone, silently running over the pooling crimson blood. The man took the device, and as silently as he could and called the police. As he called, someone stalked the house, trying to find the man.

“911, what’s your emergency?” the operator asked.

“Hello? Is anyone listening?!”

“Yes, sir, what’s your emergency?”

“Please, help us!”

“What’s your emergency?” the operator repeated.

“My… my wife, she-she got stabbed!” the man whispered, running towards a closet to hide in. “It-it was an animal!”

“Don’t worry, if you send us your address, we’ll have an ambulance in moments-”

“No!” the man on the other end cut in. “You don’t understand! I n-need the police! There was this woman- she was wearing red and pretended to deliver something- then- then.”

“Hide,” the operator calmly ordered. “The police have been notified. But we need your address.”

“I’m at the Drivekind Apartment, floor nine, room ninety-two. I-I don’t think she- the woman in red found me yet.”

“Keep on the call. We need as much information as possible.”

The man watched through the cracks in the closet as a figure entered the room adjoining. She wore red, both in a natural color and in the crimson blood. As she walked, a knife trailed behind, wet with blood. Oddly, her hair was neatly tied back in a ponytail, unstained with blood.

“Wait,” the man whispered, “I think I recognize her.”

“Who is it?”

Through the closet, the man saw the bloody woman leave the room, searching. She had an odd look in her eyes like she was devoid of any life. It looked different from what the man remembered, whereas before, she was full of joy and happiness when she worked at the restaurant.

The man also remembered that she had been fired for failing to show up for work many times, then claiming it was because of a seemingly supernatural stalker.

Outside, a team of seven entered. The door had been locked, but a simple kick brought down the old, weak, door. The room inside was covered in debris, broken furniture, and blood. To the officers, something that was not human must have rampaged in the apartment.

“Kintain Police Department!” the apparent leader shouted.

“Sir, a trail of blood,” another informed. “And a body.”

Indeed, the body of the caller’s wife lay dead on the bloody carpet, stabbed numerous times. But there was an odd quality to the corpse as if being killed was voluntary. The dead even had a wide smile, as if nothing had happened.

The leader nodded silently, and they began to follow the trail, soon arriving in the room where the man was hiding.

“Thank God!” the man exclaimed, practically leaping out of the closet.

“Put your hands-” one ordered,

“No, this is who called,” interjected the captain of the team. The leader turned towards the man. “Now, what happened?”

“My name is Oscar, Oscar Lilith.”

“Good,” the leader assured. “Where’s the killer?”

Oscar pointed at a door to the other room. The leader nodded in thanks and motioned for three other officers to open the door and enter. 

On the other side, the woman in red was revealed. She did not look human. The person was rabid, like a creature, lifting up a solid wooden drawer and tossing it to the side with force, searching for Oscar. 

“Put your hands where we can see them!” an officer of the law commanded.

“We will use deadly force!” another added.

Meanwhile, the woman in red gave a deep, guttural growl and shattered a nearby window with a punch. 

But before the killer could flee, a single shot fired, injuring what was more animal than human. Her body spasmed as a snarl was heard, and at last, the creature fell to the floor momentarily stunned.

“Get us some paramedics! Now!” ordered another.

Far away, Azalea and Chambers had returned to the Julian Page Investigative Service. To be exact, they were yet again in Page’s office, awaiting new orders.

“I trust the investigations went well?” Page inquired, expecting good news.

“Yes, but I fail to see how an abducted child relates to a stalker,” Paris said.

Azalea mumbled something about bubbles and cows.

“It was information from the algorithm. We trust it- it has never failed.”

“What about the cows?! I want to know about the cows!” Azalea demanded.

“Oh, I paid a friend to tell you a bogus statement as punishment for your antics. Anyway, straight to business,” Julian Page began. “You two need to go back to the city of Kintain. You see, Azalea interviewed a woman named Jessica Io. She’s in jail for murder.”

“What?!” Azalea exclaimed. “She was so nice!”

“Yes, well, people change,” Page offered. “Now, I suspect this to be related to the stalker. According to Azalea’s information, I highly doubt she would’ve transformed into a murderer in just days.”

“Anything else?” Paris asked.

“Don’t let Azalea cause any more destruction. Now, dismissed.”

The two nodded in approval and walked out of the office. As the city of Kintain was near, the two walked to a bus station, which would take them to Kintain.

An hour later, the two stepped out of the old rickety bus and into Kintain central square, a large squarish space with many shops bustling with people. Above, the sky darkened and thunder roared.

“Look,” Paris started, pointing Azalea to a large screen showing the news, which was a headshot of Jessica Io, accompanied with unreadable text, “that’s her, isn’t it.”

“It is…” Azalea muttered. “She looks so different.”

“How so?”

“The eyes, they just seem empty, like… glass.”

“It’s gonna rain soon,” Paris realized. “Azzie, let’s get to the prison- Page managed to get us clearance.”

“Noted…” Azalea half-heartedly murmured, entranced by the picture.

“Azzie!”

The screen changed to the host, a man named Maxwell Stevenson talking about the murders. This seemed to snap Azalea out of his odd trance. “Ah, right. Prison.”

“Azzie! Now!”

Azalea protested about being called Azzie but ran after Paris, who was hailing a bright yellow cab. The driver let Paris in, and Azalea soon entered. 

“And where are you two lovebirds goin’?” the driver asked.

“Prison, Kintain’s Prison,” Paris told, dispelling any ideas of lovebirds the driver had.

“Got it,” the driver replied, starting the car. “May I inquire why, or are you like FBI agents?”

“Do you mind if I blow bubbles?” Azalea asked.

“Uhm… I guess so? Just… don’t spill any soap on the seat.”

“Brilliant,” Azalea giggled. “We’re investigating Jessica Io.”

“Ugh, creepy.”

“Creepy?” Paris questioned. “How so?”

“Before I got this taxi thing, I worked at that steakhouse Jess was in charge of.”

“Ah, and I suspect something happened,” Paris commented. As she said this, she 

gave Azalea a nudge and gave him a demonic look. At once, Azalea put away the bubbles.

“Yeah, she just changed one day. Just completely different, super tired, and all that. She told us she couldn’t sleep, and it just kept happening. A few days ago, before the murder, she cracked and starting screaming about a genderless ‘it person’ stalking her. The owner was there, and she was fired.”

“I see,” Azalea understood.

The car came to a stop, and the driver spoke for the last time. “Anyways, you’re here, have a good day.”

Through the dancing windshields, the two saw a towering compound. Watchtowers guarded the prison, omnipotent eyes watching everyone who dared enter.

Azalea and Paris opened the car door and exited. Azalea gazed in wonder, while Paris dragged him to the entrance.

Like some sort of warped safe haven, the prison welcomed the two with a blast of heat. The freezing rain of the outside seemed more like a prison than the building itself.

“And you are?” somebody asked.

Paris looked up, seeing the room, which was a clean lobby. Clean white walls surrounded them, and paintings done by captives gave a false sense of security. In the center of the room, a woman in her fifties stared at the two accusingly. “I’m Paris Chambers, and my friend is Caleb Azalea.”

“Do you have passes? Or else you can’t enter this building.”

“Azzie!” Paris growled, seeing Azalea blowing bubbles while staring at the glass doors. “Stop blowing bubbles and get us our passes!”

Azalea made a show of pulling the passes out of his numerous pockets, but at last, he held up the passes. The woman understood and instructed one of the guards to lead them somewhere.

“Jessica’s been expecting you,” the guard informed.

“What? How?” Azalea asked. “Also, can I draw on the walls?”

“No, you can’t draw on the walls. What sort of investigators are you?!”

“Excuse Azzie, he’s insane,” Paris apologized, giving Azalea a stern look.

“Whenever we brought her food to her solitary cell, she kept saying she needed to see someone named Azalea.”

“I see.”

They passed a hall, where officers patted them down. Azalea fussed over his various toys being taken up, while Paris just gave the guards her bag. When they were sure no weapons had been brought, they were taken to an interrogation room. 

Through the one-sided glass, Azalea and Paris watched Jessica Io sit patiently. Her hair was ragged, grown, and looked more like fur than hair. A large smile was on her face, not in joy, but in an emotion nobody could discern. The iron walls stood menacingly, and the fluorescent lights shined pure and bright. 

Yet Jessica was unfazed, apparently unaffected. She just sat, and grinned.

“Don’t listen to whatever she says,” an officer warned. “I’m not supposed to say this, but she has a… a way of making people do what she wants?”

“How so?” Paris asked. “We need to know everything about her.”

“I heard some officers heard her talk and then… shot each other. She also tried to escape by somehow convincing some guards to bring her object.”

“It’s not her,” Azalea claimed, speaking up.

“It is,” the officer argued. “Fingerprints and DNA proves that is Jessica Io.”

“I think I know where the real Jessica Io is,” Azalea countered.

“Caleb, this is no time for games! We’re dealing with someone who turned from a nice manager to a dangerous killer.”

“This isn’t her. I just know it.”

After he said that, Azalea took off, ignoring proven evidence to trust his own mind. Paris sighed, then asked the guard to interrogate Jessica. The guard opened the door, and Paris Chambers entered.

“Aha, aaand who are you?” Jessica cackled. “I wanted Azalea!”

“Call me Chambers. I’m Azalea’s associate.”

“Oh, straight to the point? How different,” snarled the prisoner, spitting at Chambers.

“What happened to you?” Chambers interrogated, a sad tone to her voice. “I read the transcript between you and Azzie. You don’t spit at people- you were calm, confident.”

“Azzie? Is that what you call him? Well, people change.”

“Not this drastic!” Chambers reasoned. “Now tell me what happened!”

“Why?” spat Jessica.

“Or, nobody will believe your story about it.”

“I don’t care about that person. You fools know nothing,” growled the captive, trying to free herself from the iron cuffs. 

“Then let me ask you this: Are you Jessica Io?”

“Who says I am? Who says I’m not?”

“Don’t try that. It may work on those officers, but it won’t work on me.”

Jessica snarled, and laughed maniacally, a wide grin on her face. But she wasn’t moving at all as she laughed, not even her sharp, evil, grin. It was as if the sounds of laughter came from somewhere else, around the iron walled room. 

“Damn it, pay attention!” Paris growled, rising to her feet. “I will extract your story from you, and I will use any means possible. Now, tell me what happened to you!”

At this, Jessica suddenly broke down, crying. “Please, leave me before it comes back. It-it’s making me do this!”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“Whenever it’s in the room- it-it just makes me follow it. Azalea!”

“What about Azalea?”

“He left you right?” Jessica demanded, her sobs making the words almost unintelligible.

“Just outside, he left. How did you know that?”

“It’s the person- that genderless it! It must be!”

“Alright… I’m confused. I’m going to take a break now.”

Paris returned to the regular world, confused. 

“That never happened before,” the officer mentioned. “Why did she respond differently to you?”

“Different?” Paris gasped.

“She usually had that devilish attitude, but that tone at the end… sounded like someone not insane.”

“I’m going to rethink everything,” Paris decided, walking over to a table. In the center of the table was a notepad and some pens. Paris took some and began to write.

Meanwhile, Azalea raced out of the prison, passing the hall and not bothering to collect his items. Somehow, he just had a feeling he knew where Jessica was. 

Azalea called a cab and demanded the driver to go to the woods, to Jessica’s house. Somehow, a feeling just lured him to go there, like an angler luring a fish.

In the wet, torrenting rain, Azalea arrived at Jessica’s house. Bravely, the investigator ran to the door and rang the doorbell. Somehow, the police had never even thought of investigating the house.

A teary-eyed Jessica opened the door.

“I knew you’d be here!” Azalea blurted.

“I knew you’d find me here,” Jessica replied, “this was the only place I could go.”

Azalea stepped in. Jessica, who wore red, same clothes as when they first met, led him to the kitchen table. Azalea sat, while the other set about making tea.

Tea was soon finished, a minty green tea.

“Now, what happened? What of the murders?” Azalea asked. “And who’s at the prison. Is it that it?”

“I-I don’t know,” revealed the woman in red. “A few days ago, I found myself watching television when- when the screen just changed.”

“Changed?”

“Changed into it. The person, I-don’t-know. Then it just stared at me, and we were locked like that for what seemed to be hours. When I snapped out of it, it wasn’t on the screen. It was standing in front of me, a-and it was me. A perfect replica. I can’t explain it, Azzie.”

Azalea knew something was wrong. But everything felt perfect, and he just knew the woman in red was telling the truth. So he shrugged off the odd feeling. “What happened next?”

“I ran out of my apartment and back to this house. When I got here, I just passed out. I can’t explain it, I just felt really tired, and then I woke up at the steak house, where my boss was firing me.”

“And you don’t have any idea what happened?”

“No… I just don’t. They said I was shouting and throwing chairs at people- then- I was yelling about a genderless stalker- basically what I told you!”

“Peculiar…”

Back at the prison, the other Jessica screamed, a scream that sounded like extreme pain was being dealt. Paris arose from her seat and rushed to the glass.

“What’s happening?!” Paris demanded.

“No idea,” the officer replied, staring at her phone, playing a game. “She just started screaming. Probably back to insane murder lady.”

“No… look…”

Jessica had knocked her seat away from her and was now standing up, squirming and trying to pull the cuffs away from the iron table. She kept screaming, fear in her eyes as she stared at something unseen. The guard did not bother to respond, even after the sight.

But the noise of metal twisting and being ripped off the table was heard, and both the officer and Paris watched as Jessica managed to rip the cuffs from the table with herculean strength. 

The lights flickered as Jessica backed away from an unseen figure. 

“Get me in there!” Paris demanded. “Now!”

The officer scrambled to action, trying to unlock the locked door. But even as the officer scanned her I.D tag, the door didn’t unlock, staying locked the entire time. 

Paris watched as someone, no, something appeared in the interrogation room. “Oh my god…”

An exact replica of Jessica had appeared opposite the Jessica they had interrogated. There was no sign as to how this new person had appeared. One second it was just dead air, and now it wasn’t. This new woman had a large knife in hand, one already covered in blood.

Jessica screamed as the other charged, and stabbed.

At last, the door opened, and indeed, Jessica was dead. Her killer was nowhere to be seen.

Without warning, Paris’ phone rang a sharp trill in the dead silence of the aftermath. It was Azalea, and Paris picked up, planning to notify him of what had just transpired.

“Paris, you won’t believe this!” Azalea cheerfully exclaimed, “I found the real-”

“No, Azalea, no!” Paris cut in, knowing exactly what Azalea would say.

“Huh? Why? We can prove she’s innocent!”

“Azalea,” Paris began, heart pounding in fear and sweat dripping, “whoever you’re with, it’s not Jessica.”

“It is! She told me what really hap-”

“Jessica is dead.”

“But… she’s alive…”

“Azalea, where are you?”

“At her house, the one in the woods… Oh…”

“I’m going to get the police there. Don’t get hurt.”

Azalea heard the phone turn off. He tucked it away and turned from staring out of a window to face Jessica. He no longer felt calm. 

“So? Who called?”

“Just some telemarketers,” Azalea lied, “you know how they are.”

“Good. I wouldn’t want you to tell anyone I’m here.”

And now Azalea knew. Even though it, whatever it was, had the appearance of Jessica, the spell had been broken. Azalea could see the truth, seeing that whenever this person spoke, it’s mouth didn’t move. Before, the illusion made it seem human, but now, it was as if the person was a puppet, sown together with illusion and influence. 

This did not seem like Jessica anymore. Not even the clothes were right, not even any of her features. It looked genderless, not-human.

And behind this mask, Azalea saw the truth. 

He knew who it was.

Azalea remembered.

When Darkness Falls  
Azalea remembered his first encounter with the strange and mysterious. Four years ago, yet it seemed like an eternity from where he was as he stared into the eyes of Not-Jessica. But Azalea knew the monster. 

He needed to remember his past. 

Azalea stared into the dark center of the ceiling. This was his childhood, many years ago. Azalea knew he was really good at sleeping, but that night, he just couldn’t. 

He rolled over to stare at the clock, which read ‘1:31’.

Bored, he rolled over and stared back at the ceiling. As he stared at the shadow covered walls, his eyes seemingly began to play tricks upon him. The paint began to warp, forming a shape.

Child Azalea rubbed his eyes, but the ceiling continued to warp. As his room had no ceiling fan, he got a full view of what was happening. Strangely, there was no terror as the hard wall formed… a door.

The door, oddly, had color. It was a dark brown door, shiny, as if it had just been clean. The door’s handle was a perfect glowing gold.

The handle began to turn. Slowly, the door clicked, and it began to slowly swing open. Behind the door, was a strange hallway, lined with even more doors. Somehow, the door wanted him to enter. A soft humming, almost unhearable began to appear, vibrating the bed. Slowly, the bed began to float, and so did Azalea.

But just as Azalea neared the door, he heard a window break far away, distant to the child. But the door warped back into the ceiling, disappearing.

Almost immediately, the child fell asleep.

His parents later told him someone threw a rock at the window to break in.

The second time he saw the door was when he was trying to enter his middle school. Instead of the regular glass door that welcomed students in, today the door was different.

As he got closer, the door’s color had changed, now becoming dark brown, like the door from his childhood. Caleb pressed his hands against the new door, and to his surprise, it was warm, comforting, even inviting.

Through small cracks through the door, a soft, golden light showered Azalea with seemingly holy light.

Azalea turned the door’s handle, but again, their destined meeting was interrupted. The school bell had rung, and the door sucked itself, swirling itself into non-existence.

The third time was in the catacombs.

Caleb Azalea had never gone to the catacombs before. Today, it would be his first time. He, and some others had won a lottery and would be exploring the catacombs, led by a highly experienced guide.

While creepy, they would still be traveling through marked paths.

And that’s why Azalea met up with the five other winners. He didn’t know any of their names, and he didn’t bother two. He simply saw them as numbers, more data than human in his head.

“Oh! I’m late!” the guide called, a woman named Michelle Alarie as she ran step after step to a bus stop where the others awaited. Looking back, Azalea noted her to look a lot like Jessica Io.

“No problem,” chirped one of the adventurers, a fellow with a British accent.

“Now, we’ll be taking a bus that’s… also late.”

Just as the guide spoke those words, a small orange bus arrived around the corner. Along the side were various advertisements, and the occasional graffiti. The small group entered the bus, and took their seats.

An hour later, Caleb found himself taking photographs of the infinite skull walls of the catacombs. He didn’t know the others in the group, so he just stood and gazed at the sights while the guide narrated vivid scenes.

The skull halls were lit with a soft, golden glow, an aura of life, even in the rivers of the dead.

“…and that’s how and why the catacombs were created,” the guide explained. Caleb nodded, not paying attention. The skulls were giving him a strange feeling, a calm, almost sleepy feel. 

“Hey!” someone called, snapping Caleb out of his trance. Reflecting back, Azalea would realize this man was Oscar Lilith. “We’re going now!”

“Right! Sorry!”

But as Azalea ran, he saw something that should not have been there. Yet he knew it was there for him. A door, sticking out, wooden, a dark brown, but it looked newer, glistening in the electronic golden lights.

Azalea stopped. By now, many years had passed since he had last seen the door. He had chalked it up to a childhood dream, but now, he was certain of the door’s existence.

This time, he wasted no time in admiring the door. Azalea turned the handle, and opened the gateway.

Like his first encounter, it was a long hall, basked with a golden light with an unknown source. He walked in, sure of what he was doing. When he was far enough from the still open door, the entrance closed.

But Azalea was not afraid. Something about the hall seemed like destiny. 

At the end of the hall, was another door. This one seemed to call out to him. The gateway was like the door he had used to get in, and a sign on the door labeled it as ‘exit’.

Azalea still tried the other doors, but found them locked. Something pounded at the door when he tried one that was a crimson color.

Opening the ‘exit’ door, he found it leading back into the catacombs. But there were no guests, no guides, and nobody. Checking his phone, Azalea found it to be 1:41 am. 

Azalea stepped out, and the world behind him disappeared.

Oddly, the door leading out of the catacombs were open, but as he walked out, the doors slammed shut, then locking itself airtight shut. 

In the streets of Paris, France, nobody noticed him exit. But Azalea noticed them. He could sense something different as different peoples passed him. Some gave him a feeling of anxiety, while others calmed him down.

He decided it was probably nothing, and returned to his hotel to sleep. 

But all through the next day, the feelings still persisted. Coffee didn’t work, because when his eye caught someone looking tired, he would be instantly tired. He watched a child celebrate a party, and he felt a feeling of security and pleasure.

Though he didn’t notice often, a side effect caused him to want to experience fun, and so he indulged himself in odd trinkets that pleased him, which, like bubbles, pleased others.

It was the same after that. Doctors mumbled something about brains when he went to the hospital, and that was after his appointments got canceled time after time.

In other words, Caleb Azalea got used to his new ability.

He liked the nighttime. Nobody was there to make him feel scared. The dwellers of night were peaceful.

But one day, months after he gained the new ability, one such person scared him. Azalea remembered the person from somewhere. He concentrated, and realized it was one of the other visitors, one that won the lottery for the catacomb tour. He thought, then remembered it was a man named Elijah Jacobi. He didn’t sense any new feelings from this person, which scared him. It wasn’t normal, and everyone else he saw gave him feelings.

Azalea decided to follow him.

Elijah Jacobi walked into an alleyway, and Azalea stalked him silently. Now concentrating, Azalea could see something different about Elijah, like he wasn’t completely ‘there’. It didn’t seem like a human either. Instead, it just seemed human, like how mannequin exists as humanoid, but how the uncanny valley repelled humankind. 

Every few seconds, Azalea would think it looked male, then female, changing again and again.

It reminded him of television static, always shifting. But in the end, Azalea could not keep track, and it looked not-human, and not-gendered, even though he was sure Elijah was.

Now, Elijah began to look back, making sure nobody was following. He saw Caleb Azalea a few times, thinking he was some person going the same path, but Azalea learned, and hid just around a corner.

When the man was sure nobody watched, he began to change. Azalea peeked out, and what he saw, horrified him. The body began to shrivel and transform, like a towel being wrung of liquid. As the body began to twist, a crack began to appear on the skin, where a single jet-black limb came through.

The limb was sticklike, and it had ring patterns at its edges, where it met a clawed hand. Three, serrated, daggers were fingers, and these daggers ripped the body, freeing another limb. 

The first limb stretched out of the body, revealing a length that could not have been contained. The second burst out, where it set itself on the ground- a leg, longer than the already long arm. One it’s ‘feet’ had curving claws that when they moved, clicked and scraped together.

The freed limbs began to split, turning two, into four.

From the inside, two more limbs burst out, silent, except for the brief rustling of wind and scrapes of its toes. Those changed as well, each limb ripping apart and forming new ones.

From the center, burst a head, followed by an extending, skinny, neck. The head looked like an open Venus Flytrap, except that it had a color beyond black. What appeared to be a mouth was open, and needles of teeth were raised, half pointing outward, half inwards.

The human body now sagged in a corner, empty, and slack like paper. It was flat, and spread across. 

Beside it, the monster, whatever it was rose to full height, rising higher than even the highest of mankind.

The transformation happened in quick succession, and Azalea opened his mouth to scream- when a hand covered it.

And that’s where he met Paris Chambers for the first time.

“Listen,” she had first whispered, “if you want to live, stay silent.”

And now, in the present, Azalea remembered his past as he stared into the dark eyes of someone who was Not-Jessica.

Not-Jessica began to shift, and Azalea prayed to anyone who might be listening.

Geologic Time Shift  
Kitten was recovering from the bite of the Laophis in the recovery room. They were now at Wyvern Base to pick up a doctor for the plane, a person by the name of Daena Santos. With the arrival of the doctor, there had been major adjustments to the plane’s antivenom creation machine. Agent Daniel Napoleon had left the plane to attend to other important business but had left Kitten on the plane to recover and assist.

“So your name’s Kitten?” Daena inquired, “Why?”

“I don’t like my real name, and I have pet kittens.” Kitten replied, while two kittens danced nearby him.

“Well then, just stay on board this plane. You need to rest.”

“Got it.”

Daena Santos finished checking up on Kitten and returned to her room, which she shared with Sukie. Luckily for her, Sukie never seemed to sleep in the room, giving her privacy. Sukie instead, slept in the lab room, using a bed of her own design there instead. Even if the researcher decided to sleep in the room, it wouldn’t bother the other, due to Sukie’s silence.

For the first time since integration into this new job, Jack, Stacy, Maizie, and Leo had a good night’s sleep.

The sun rose on a new dawn, and with a new dawn, a new mission.

“Oh this is wonderful!” gushed Daena. “What drone system are you guys using to create these foods! Better than the food on Leviathan Base!”

“Ask Justin,” answered Xavier.

“You’re from Leviathan Base as well?” Kitten inquired. “Me too, what sector did you grow up in?”

“K Sector.”

“Ah, I’m from C. Welcome to the DCU.”

“What?”

“What we are- the Dinosaur Containment Unit. A nickname.”

Justin was called over from his and Lily’s table, where he explained that he and some friends had modified the system during the nighttime.

The door to the dining and kitchen room swung open, revealing Milo Krassant, who beckoned for Xavier to leave. After a while, Xavier returned with a flash drive.

“Alright,” Xavier started, “Justin, Lily, once you’re done eating, we leave for the town of Fort Pisces, New Mexico. Everyone else, finish and meet me in the briefing room.”

Everyone nodded, and soon, it was done. The plane left behind Wyvern base and into the skies.

“A mission?” Leo wondered. “Do we get paid for this job that we get out of nowhere?”

“Yes, Leo, yes. This job is only for special people, and none of you have had any objections. If you object, you may leave,” Xavier informed, “now since we are a secret to the public, we have fake FBI badges. The only people who know of us are our sponsors, usually the governments of the world.”

“That is true,” Leo decided. “I think we’ll do fine here.”

“Now, I’ll resume. We are heading to the town of Fort Pisces, New Mexico,” Xavier began, clicking a button and moving to a presentation slide. There were photos of three pale bodies with bite marks. “Three people have been killed by something-”

“How do we know it’s not someone? Those marks could just be regular animals,” Stacy pointed out.

“Sukie has informed me that there is evidence of tachyon particles,” Xavier explained, “they only come from time portals- so a portal must be there. How and why? We don’t know-”

Sukie came up to Xavier and handed him some papers, one of which had a circle around a certain paragraph.

“Actually, these time portals could be natural or something. Whatever, this doesn’t matter,” Xavier decided. “Our mission is to capture whatever animal this is. Or if it’s a human, catch that person. Sukie has developed a machine that will close the portal. Okay, presentation over- be here in an hour.”

Sukie handed him more papers.

“Sukie wants me to tell you something,” Xavier began, “Ahem, Sukie wrote on this research paper- I believe portals are unnatural to time and the universe. So when you encountered that Scorpion manmade one, the manmade portal messed up geologic time shift-”

“This logic is blowing my mind…” Leo sarcastically replied.

Sukie proceeded to ball up a piece of paper and launch it at Leo, striking him square in the face.

“This causes geologic time shift,” continued Xavier, reading Sukie’s research paper.

“A what?” Jack asked in confusion.

“The universe is trying to fix this time problem, and portals are outside of time- and the universe doesn’t like time irregularities.”

“Okay, so this time irregularity, it’s bringing in more portals?” asked Leo.

Sukie nodded in approval.

“According to my- Sukie’s findings, it should take a couple of years to be put back in place. “

An hour passed quickly. Maizie was instructed to tap into the medical examiner’s office, while the others waited around, now using the briefing room to play a video game.

“Prepare for touchdown!” Lily warned over the speaker. “We’ll be landing in a large lake and then cloaking!”

Everyone headed to a safer location for the landing. Xavier headed to the ramp to make preparations for a boat.

The plane dipped downwards and soon enough, the passengers could see a large lake. Maizie had made sure nobody would come to the lake by giving the local authorities a false warning.

With a shake and splash, the plane landed on the water.

“Cloaking,” Justin told via the speaker.

The plane shimmered as light bounced off differently until it made the plane invisible.

“Alright, let’s do this,” Xavier ordered, “Kitten, Maizie, stay back here. Sukie, Jack, Stacy, and I will investigate. Leo and Daena will take another boat and go investigate the sites of the bodies in the woods.”

“Do I have to stay?” Kitten pleaded. “I’m fine. The snake bite isn’t that bad.”

“Doctors orders,” The doctor Daena reminded.

“Guys,” Xavier began, “let’s go before anyone else dies.”

Everyone had to agree with Xavier. The plane’s ramp lowered, partly descending into the water. Xavier had Justin and Lily bring out a small bat, where our four heroes found themselves.

“So the time portal?” Stacy started. “Do we know where it is or something?”

“We believe the portal has closed,” Xavier answered, “thirty minutes before we arrived, the tachyon particles faded out and are now holding steady at a low rate. We’re still bringing the portal closer device with us just in case.”

Sukie reached in her backpack and came out with a small cube. She pressed a green button on it and the cube began to scan everything, lighting up the boat with green.

“Peculiar indeed,” Stacy decided, “so, we believe an animal is poisoning these people?”

“Indeed,” Xavier clarified, “you’re the paleontologist- do you know anything about venomous prehistoric animals.”

“Not much information is known about venom in prehistoric animals,” Stacy answered, “it could be anything. Only a few, such as therocephalians or bacteria.”

“What are those? The therosillies?”

“It’s quite hard to explain- think of a lion, a rat, a crocodile, and a lizard combined,” Stacy began, trying to find a picture of one on her tablet.

“Weird.”

As soon as Xavier finished his sentences, they had arrived at the shore. In the distance, they saw Leo and Doctor Daena heading into the forest.

“Who are you?! Where the hell did you come from?!” a voice demanded.

The four searched around until they saw a young child hiding in a bush.

“We are here to investigate.” Jack managed.

“Lies! I saw you guys appear out of thin air from that lake! I’m telling my parents! My dad is the police!”

“Well that was weird,” Xavier said. “I hope this doesn’t cause any interruptions.”

“Don’t worry,” Jack responded, shrugging it off, “probably nothing.”

Sukie agreed, nodding.

The four followed a dirt road into town, where people were walking and talking. Apparently, they had arrived during the tourist season. People were taking photographs of the ruins of the fort which dotted the town and the statue of its founder.

“Hi,” Stacy began, innocently, calling an officer, “we need to get to the police station, will you please show us directions?”

The officer pulled out a map and gave them some directions. It was a short distance away, and they started walking.

“Excuse me, can one of you take a photo of us?” some random person asked.

“Er…” Xavier mumbled.

“Uhm, maybe?” Jack replied, unsure.

Sukie took the camera and snapped a few photos.

“I hate tourist spots,” Xavier huffed.

“It’s not that bad,” Stacy commented, “people are happy here.”

Our four protagonists soon arrived at the police station, though a few more nosey tourists asked them questions and to take photos. Perhaps it was bad luck, or perhaps it was Xavier dressing up like some important person. 

So there they were, the four in the generic-looking police station. There was a long line of complaining tourists as well.

“Sir, you can’t go to the front of the line!” an officer declared.

“Ahem, the four of us are with the FBI, here to see the dead bodies,” Xavier stated as if actually being part of the FBI.

“Oh yes, just follow me.”

The fake FBI followed the officer into the Medical Examiner’s Office, where the three dead bodies had been laid out.

“You!” a small voice yelled. Our heroes looked down to see the annoying child from before.

“Not again!” Stacy muttered disapprovingly.

The medical examiner arrived, an old man that surprisingly looked healthy, having quite a lot of positivity in his steps.

“Sorry about my grandson George here, he doesn’t like new people-”

“They’re demons! I saw them appear out of thin air in the lake!” the silly child cut in.

“Shoo,” the examiner told.

The child ran away.

“Now, let’s get to business,” Jack began, “the bodies?”

“Ah, yes, my name is Eli Blake,” he replied, “now to the bodies.”

Our four followed Eli to the three bodies.

“Do you know what poison was used?” 

“No, it seems to be one we’ve never seen before,” Eli explained, “we believe it’s a serial killer that works in a medical lab.”

“Those animal marks,” Stacy pointed out, “do you know what animal?”

“No, but it could be the local wildlife,” answered the medical examiner, “it could be some sort of wolf-coyote hybrid.”

“I see,” Xavier began, now, his turn, “Has anyone seen anything strange, say, a glowing purple light?”

“Uhm, no. What sort of FBI agents are you?”

“The regular kind. Now, how about sightings of strange things?”

“Uh… no?”

“Agent Krassant, I think I’ll ask the questions,” Jack decided, “now do you know where these hunters were hunting?”

“Yep- over in the forest at the Deer Cave.”

“Great, now uh, has anyone of you seen any weird electricity or something?”

“Okay, I don’t think you guys are from the FBI. Stay right here, I’m getting security!”

“Damn it,” Stacy barked.

The four found themselves being escorted by police officers and thrown in a holding cell. Even in this nonsense, Sukie remained quiet as a mouse, no doubt thinking of some plan to escape.

“Hey! Sir! I know my rights!” Xavier called.

“Uh-huh. Yep, totally. They are?”

“Well, uh, uhm,” Xavier stammered, “the right to umm… remain silent?”

“Yeah, I think you should be doing that,” said the guard.

“Uh… a call!”

The guard had to agree.

Xavier dialed Milo.

“Maizie, my team is in Fort Pisces Jail, could you um, get us out?”

“Yep.”

A minute later a guard arrived and let them out. The guard was perplexed, because Maizie had sent some blackmail.

“Leo?” Jack inquired, calling Leo on the phone.

“Hmm?”

“Go to the Deer Caves sector. We’ll be there in a moment.”

“Got it.”

Leo disconnected the call and informed Daena of this new development. They prepared their TSC pistols and headed into the forest. Nothing but the green and brown of the environment of the forest was visible. The song of wondrous birds sang in the sunshine as if no deaths had taken place.

“So, Daena,” Leo began, “what are you doing later?”

“Leo, this is hardly the time-” she began, just before gasping.

“Hmm? What?”

“There- a deer!”

Leo and Daena walked over to the deer, pointing their pistols at every noise, even the slightest. The deer was not dead, but in pain.

“Aw, poor thing,” Daena cooed, “what did this to you.”

“Look,” Leo notified, pointing at several bite marks, “those look like the same marks like the ones on the bodies.”

“So the implication is that this animal behaves like a Komodo Dragon. Let’s see if I can get some of this venom,” Daena trailed as she began to coerce some blood into a bag.

As the two tried to help the deer, a creature hissed in annoyance, seemingly thinking “My kill… two-leg things bad…”.

“Did you hear that?!” Leo shot, jumping up and looking around.

“Uh?”

“A hiss!”

“Then we gotta get back to the plane. I need to create an antivenom for the deer. I’ll leave a marker here for the others.”

Leo had to agree, and soon the two left the forest, back to the boat, and back to the plane. 

Meanwhile, we cut back to the other team, who have rented an offroad car to enter the forest.

“There there, and- oh screw it!” Jack began, shouting at the map, “Just go in the woods.”

“No, follow this marker,” Xavier informed, showing them his tablet which tracked the marker the doctor had placed.

“What is that?” Stacy inquired.

Sukie gave her a handbook and pointed at a section about markers and tracking devices.

When they were a short distance away from the marker, the four disembarked, careful not to scare anything.

“Wait, I sense danger,” Xavier whispered, “Sukie, send up a drone!”

Sukie rolled her eyes but sent up a drone from her backpack. The four were looking at the drone footage now. The drone went closer and closer until-

“-What is that?!” Jack gasped.

On-screen, the heroes saw four peculiar animals eating the deer, who was still alive. The creatures looked as if a mad scientist mixed lizards with dogs. Some teeth of the creature poked out were saber shaped, like the saber-teeth of a Smilodon. The size of these creatures was quite small, as they guessed it to reach up to just above a human’s knees.

“What the hell is that?” Xavier murmured.

“Therocephilians,” Stacy informed, “the first mammals to use venom- and similar to the gorgonopsids which were the first saber-tooths. Due to the small size, I believe these are Euchambersia.”

“Mammals?!” Jack blurted, “Those look like fur-covered lizards!”

“Ready your TSC pistols,” Xavier ordered, “we’ll be bringing them back to the plane.”

Unknown to them, the medical examiner’s kid happened to see them and decided to follow them into the forest. 

The beasts snapped at each other as they ripped bits of flesh from the dying deer. If you looked at them hard enough, the creatures looked cute, but that didn’t matter to our four. Now close, they saw that the creatures were a soft brown with dark brown dots in a specific pattern.

“Be careful,” Stacy cautioned, “ready?”

“Now!” Xavier commanded.

The four leaped out of the trees, surprising the Euchambersias, who barked at them. Jack shot at one, missing a few times but eventually hitting it. The other creatures began to run away. Stacy and Xavier chose the same target, and they tranquilized the second. Sukie, who was apparently an expert markswoman, defeated the third. 

“Hey!” the kid interjected, surprising everyone, causing them to miss the fourth Euchambersia. “Stop killing these animals!”

The small creature was dangerously close to the kid.

“Kid, stay back,” Stacy warned, “we are dealing with this.”

The kid, not understanding, leaped at the creature, taking it into his arms.

“Uh oh,” Jack muttered, pointing the pistol at the two, “now what?!”

“I’m not letting you shoot this animal!” 

The Euchambersia barked in stress and swiveled around to face the kid. The Permian monster was in the kid’s arms, giving it a short reach for the neck.

“Throw it down!” Xavier yelled. “Now!”

Before the kid could react, the Euchambersia leaped and bit into flesh, injecting the human’s jugular vein with venom. The kid screamed and fell to the floor, while the animal ran. Sukie ran to track down the killer animal.

“Damn it!” Xavier growled.

Meanwhile, Sukie followed the Euchambersia to a small clearing. Her eyes grew wide as she saw what appeared to be a time portal. But it was different, there were no coils of lightning-like purple. Instead, this was just swirls of wondrous colors, but splashes of blues, purples, greens, and oranges.

The Euchambersia ran into the portal, where it vanished, returning to the past. Sukie followed the creature in.

She stepped through the sphere arriving long in the past. She was on a cliff, and below, she saw giant herbivorous dicynodonts. In a clearing, she saw an animal similar to the Euchambersia, but larger, eating a carcass of the rat-like dicynodonts.

She returned back to the present and informed Xavier of her discoveries with a few simple text messages.

Sukie activated her device to close the portal. The cube scanned the portal, then unleashing some sort of beam upon it. The sphere’s colors danced faster and faster. Little by little, the portal began to shrink. When it was the size of a marble, it gave off a shockwave, before shrinking into oblivion.

The doctor and Leo arrived just three minutes later. But alas, due to the size of the human, it was too late to save the child. The deer, however, would live.

“Poor thing,” muttered Xavier.

“Oh well… what now?” Jack inquired.

“Leave the body here. We won’t have anything to do with this anymore.”

And so that was that, and our heroes returned to the plane with a heavy heart. Today, someone- a child, had died that they could have prevented. 

“Guys!” Maizie cheered, greeting the team back on the plane. “You’re back!”

“What happened?” Kitten asked. “Why the look on your faces?”

“Nothing, nothing,” Daena responded, “don’t worry about it.”

For in this line of work, not everyone can be saved. But with this death, came a revelation- naturally occurring time portals were stable, as opposed to the man-made ones that shot out tentacles of purple.

Flightless  
“That thing is vicious, it killed a baby giraffe like it was a cockroach!”

Haruka Ito, Alternate Knife’s Edge.  
Sukie worked on the artifact Jack’s team had found in the Temple of Water. She had been working for a while now, but today, something would happen. Sukie poked and prodded until-

-She gasped in surprise.

The machine projected images into the air- holograms. Creatures were in scenes, information files, worlds, and creatures unknown. Some showed the skies, where peculiar creatures flew, another was a jungle, where a herd of strange animals walked. Another was of a vast desert where large flying bats flew. Last, she saw a map, but it wasn’t like a map anyone had seen before.

And just like that, the show ended.

It was replaced with cubes that when Sukie looked at one, a title would hover over it. Sukie poked at one called ‘future ecosystems’ and an animation played- the box opening and smaller boxes leaving it.

Future device? She wrote. Future worlds?

Luckily for the young scientist, all of this was caught on camera. After one more check, she told Xavier of the development, who told Milo.

As usual, they were parked at Wyvern Base, which had moved to a southern location, lessening the cold. It was still high up, so it was still quite cold. 

Everyone else was asleep, except for Justin and Lily, who were reading books. Milo opened the door, dressed in warm clothes and a dark blue windbreaker. A gust of wind blew into the plane as Milo entered, alerting Justin and Lillian.

“So basically,” Justin started, talking about a book near the TV where they were playing a fireplace, “I think the character of Zora is the best, rather than Jamie.”

“I see, though Jamie is the smartest.”

“No way- Kaden is!”

“You do have a point-” Lily began, just before she was cut by the gust of wind. She turned and greeted Milo, saying. “Oh, hi Milo.”

“Hi, kiddos. Aw, how cute.” 

“Well yes- wait a minute!”

Milo left the room, going to meet Sukie and Xavier.

“Brother, here!” Xavier beckoned.

“What is it?”

Sukie played the video, showing the agent the mysterious holographic images.

“This is some sort of future device, that much is clear,” Milo theorized, “why don’t you get that young hacker Maizie for this. She might be able to help.”

“Brilliant idea, dear brother. But is she ready?”

“Sukie? What do you think about Maizie?”

Sukie nodded in approval.

“Then tomorrow it will-”

Milo’s tablet sounded an alarm. Milo looked at it and checked something.

“We will continue this discussion later. You guys have a mission- tachyon particles have been spotted in Talaria Airport. That’s relatively near, just fifteen minutes away.”

“No rest for the wicked,” sighed Xavier.

Sukie sighed as well.

Milo left the building, but not before instructing them to lift off as soon as everyone awoke. Next, Xavier and Sukie knocked on the other’s doors and awoke them.

“Mmmm…” a very sleepy Maizie mumbled, “what now?”

“No idea…” Stacy managed.

Sukie beckoned for them to join here.

“It’s… it’s two in the morning…” Jack stammered.

“Y-yeah…” 

Xavier facepalmed.

The doctor was trained to wake up randomly and had no problem. Kitten, as well.

“What’s up with those two?” Kitten inquired, catching a glimpse of the two pilots.

“No idea,” Xavier replied, “Milo probably made a Justilian shipping comment, or y’know, something to do with croissants. Also, how many cats do you have on this plane?! I keep seeing them everywhere!”

“I think about twelve…”

“No matter- to the briefing room!”

As everyone gathered, the plane took off, leaving Wyvern Base in the distance.

“We will be arriving at Talaria Airport in fifteen minutes, where a portal has apparently opened. As usual, our job is to close the portal and keep everything hushed. I’ve pulled some strings to close the airport because of some fake virus. There will be people, but no-one will enter or exit.”

Everyone just sighed.

“What’s going on now…” Jack moaned, “why can’t portals just appear in the daytime…”

“Sukie told me there’s a certain radius where portals occur from the manmade one. This could go bad if Scorpion makes more…” Xavier answered.

“Right, what even is Scorpion?” Stacy inquired. “Even Kitten doesn’t know.”

“No idea, but we know they are against humanity. In a recent terror attack, they blew up a school and left behind some notes of how they are against humanity,” Xavier started, “they left behind a note about how they were going to destroy the human plague and return the world to animals.”

“Who’s the leader?” Leo inquired.

“No idea, not even our spies. Rumour says it’s run by someone named Quazi. The portals could be used to end humanity.”

Fifteen minutes later they arrived at the airport. As usual, Maizie stayed behind in case she was needed to hack something and to help Sukie. Xavier stayed back as well to help Sukie.

After an explanation of how the Time Cube, which was the nickname for the device used to track and shut down portals worked, Leo, Jack, Stacy, Doctor Daena, and Kitten departed the plane. They walked in the night, silently approaching a pair of doors.

“Damn it! Locked!” Kitten yelled, trying to open the doors. “And I sure won’t be allowed to break the doors…”

“Do we have another way in?” Stacy asked, pondering the situation.

A face appeared from the inside. It was a security guard who looked really annoyed.

“Hey! Who are you people?!”

“Just trust us and let us in,” Jack commanded.

“Okay…?”

“Trust us, no tricks are up our sleeves, I’m a doctor,” Daena pointed out.

With nothing else to say, the tired security guard opened the doors and let them in. Leo whipped out the Time Cube and flipped open a screen. He then began scanning the area, waving the obscure metal box around.

“Wait, how do I know you’re not some sort of terrorists?” the guard demanded, putting a hand to her holster.

“Ahem,” Leo began, “we’re with the CDC.”

“Don’t you have suits? Don’t you need them?”

“Trust us.”

“I’ll be following you just in case.”

“So be it,” Kitten retorted, “and while we’re at it, we’ll need your name.”

“Charlotte Hoiki, but you can call me Char.”

Leo, Jack, Stacy, Daena, Kitten, and Char began to walk, at last entering an area where they saw some people, though only three or four. It wasn’t a very big airport.

“What is that device?” Char questioned, as Leo led them around a few more turns.

“A um, virus checker,” Leo hesitantly lied.

That was that. Leo led them into an area still under construction. It was like a ghost airport, if such a thing exists. 

“There!” Stacy exclaimed, pointing at a corner where swirling lights danced with shadow.

“Char, stay here,” Kitten ordered, “don’t argue.”

Everyone except the unknowing Char prepared themselves for the portal. It swirled with color, creating abstract puppetry on the wall.

“This is it,” Jack muttered, “time to do this and go back to sleep.”

“I agree,” Stacy agreed.

Leo put the small box on the ground and activated the device. It scanned the area around. After detecting the time portal, a small cannon popped up and fired a continuous laser upon it.

“Thirty seconds,” a monotonic voice sounded, coming from the box.

29

28

27

26

25

24

23-

A clucking noise, like a bird.

“Wait,” Daena said, “something came through.”

From the shadows of an under-construction restaurant, a large bird stepped through. An ostrich-like bird with a large beak, feathers black and covering the bird. The creature was tall, about five meters high. This was no ordinary bird, for this was a Terror Bird.

“Kelenken,” Stacy whispered, scanning the beast with a machine.

18

The Kelenken watched the device with curiosity.

17

The Kelenken approached the device. Everyone was paralyzed in fear.

16

Kitten leaped up and fired a tranquilizer dart at the creature. The beast screeched in surprise and charged at Kitten, who was nearby the Time Cube.

15-

CRACK! Was the noise as the Kelenken crushed the small-time cube underneath a three-toed foot. Kitted backed away as the monster approached him.

The others then saw two yellow, piercing eyes behind Kitten. 

“Kitten! Behind you!” Jack hissed, trying to stay quiet.

Kitten turned to see the beak of a Terror Bird. The beak raised up and prepared to smash into him like an ax. Kitten fell to the floor and rolled to the side, just as the ax-like beak smashed into his former location and deep into the wall.

The other Terror Bird took a moment to pause, then aimed its head up and began to call. 

“What- Oh my god!” Char gasped. “What the hell?!”

From the shadows, several more Terror Birds appeared. They snarled at one another, especially a pair which were playing a tug-of-war with a human’s hand. The hand was tattooed, and a name was visible.

“Run! Now!” Jack declared.

All six humans ran. The Kelenkens began the chase. Although the humans had a big head start, the Kelenken were faster, and was quickly gaining ground. As they ran, our DAE agents fired tranquilizers at the creatures, but at the speed the birds were going, it seemed completely ineffective.

“Elevators! There!” Daena shouted, pointing to an elevator.

Kitten, with his advanced running skills pressed the elevator button, causing the door to open. He pressed the other as well, causing that to open.

“In!” Kitten yelled.

The five others somehow managed to make it in. Leo, Stacy, and Jack escaped to the other elevator while Char and Daena found themselves with Kitten.

Kitten desperately pressed the button for the second floor. He looked to the other elevator, and saw it lift above.

As the doors closed, one Terror Bird smashed its ax beak in between the closing doors.

“No, no, no!” Char panicked.

Kitten decided to punch the beast’s face, knocking it backward. Daena pressed the override button. The Terror Bird’s head was just inside when the doors finally closed, crushing the Kelenken’ neck and decapitating its head, causing it to fall onto the floor with a disgusting moist squelch.

The three watched the headless body fall limp to the floor. Other Terror Birds caught up and began ripping at their fallen comrade, now reduced to simply a new meal.

“I am soooo n keeping this head,” Kitten maniacally squealed.

“Well,” Daena panted, “not everyday you get to punch a dinosaur out of an elevator and I get to decapitate it.”

“Will you two loverbirds shut up and tell me what the hell is going on here?!” Char demanded, a hand on her holster.

“I’m sorry, but that’s classified information,” Kitten responded, “though I do need you to make sure nobody can leave this airport.”

“That, I can do.”

“Oh and for the record, we are not, ‘lovebirds’.”

A bell sounded as they reached the second floor. Leo, Stacy, and Jack were waiting, talking about the events that just happened.

“We’ve got to shut down that time portal!” Stacy declared. “Before any more things come through.”

“What if we called Maizie, maybe she can help us research this!” Leo offered. 

“Kitten, what are you holding?” Jack inquired, seeing Kitten hold the head. “Is that- Ew!”

“I punched that thing out of the elevator!”

“Oh my god, please explain all this! How are you guys so calm!” Char demanded. “Or I’ll have more security report here.”

“Char?” a voice hesitantly asked, appearing from Charlotte’s radio. “That passenger is demanding to know why all flights have been canceled.”

“Nico, you won’t believe this but-”

“Nope,” Kitten smugly put in. He activated the radio to respond, saying, “I am Agent Glass of the CDC, FBI, CIA, and everything else. Nothing suspicious is going on here-”

“That’s not the problem!” the voice yelled back. “My name is Franklin Compton. A passenger is threatening us- his name is Dylan Roth. Do you guys have any records of him so that we can arrest him?”

“Yes, we’ll get right on that,” Kitten responded, dialing up Maizie at the same time. He spoke to Maizie, and soon got an answer. “Dylan Roth shouldn’t even be here. He’s a mafia boss. Also, please make sure nobody leaves- not even to get up. Everyone must stay in their seats. Hmm, oh yeah- one of your workers is dead- Arnold or something.”

“We need to get to that area,” Jack began, asking Char, “can you lead us the way?”

Reluctantly, Char agreed. There was an emergency pathway used that led them to the location, which was terminal Q, where all the people were sat down in the waiting chairs.

“Do you think those Kelenken have discovered this terminal?” Leo wondered aloud.

“Probably,” Stacy answered. “They’ll take this airport as their territory.”

“Then we’ll need to hurry.”

The six walked to the terminal and soon came upon dangerous games. No, the birds hadn’t discovered the area, but Dylan Roth was wreaking havoc.

“Alright, we deserve to know why we are stuck here! I say, we go up the planes and ask ourselves! We all have places to be!” Dylan declared. “Be brave enough to say no to the authorities!”

The crowd cheered all around Dylan, who was standing on top of a chair.

“Stop!” Kitten countered shouting at the top of his lungs. “My name is Agent Glass from the FBI, CDC, CIA, and everything else. This man is a wanted criminal- a Swedish mafia boss!”

The crowd booed at Kitten.

“Lies! The authorities know nothing!” the people chanted.

The chanting grew ever louder, so much that Kitten fired a blank gun into the roof. The shot grabbed no attention and only enraged the humans.

“Calm down! There is a dangerous virus here!”

“All this shouting is bound to attract those Terror Birds…” Stacy pointed out.

“We need to do something,” Leo replied.

But alas, nothing could be done. Dylan pushed poor Kitten off a chair and resumed his speech.

“Now, join me and take down these false leaders! We’ll start by imprisoning these guys!”

“Don’t you dare!” Kitten countered, pointing his TSC pistol at the man. “I will fire this weapon!”

“I dare you!” was the response.

Kitten fired his weapon, but was knocked off his feet by the mob, causing the gun to fire downwards, bouncing the dart off a chair. Kitten flicked his extendable electroshock baton, extending it to full size.

“Stay back!”

The crowd ignored him and began to surround him. Kitten sensed someone about to strike him, but he intercepted the attack with his baton. The electric shock knocked back his attacker, giving a small path.

But alas, there were too many of the crazed and soon, he was tied up. The crowd then charged towards the rest of the team, Charlotte, and Franklin. 

Nothing worked and all the authorities were tied up.

“Now,” Dylan began, dangling some keys, “let’s lock them in the storage closet!”

The crowd cheered. The tied up authorities were shoved into a storage closet, which was quite large.

“Ugh! Can anyone of you get out of this rope?!” the man named Franklin queried.

In the crowd’s delirium, they had forgotten to completely disarm Kitten and Daena. The two had hidden daggers, which they used to free themselves of the bonds. Kitten replied a yes to Franklin and soon freed everyone.

“Now to getting out of here,” Leo whispered.

Daena carved a tiny hole, allowing her to look out.

“Three armed guards with our TSCs,” she informed, “and Dylan is giving a big speech. Oh, he also has one of our guns, one lethal and one non-lethal. Wait-”

“Hmm?” Stacy pondered.

“The birds! I think I heard a call! Uh-oh, that guy is shooting at the windows!”

“Alright, while the crowd’s distracted, let’s take out these guards!” Jack ordered.

Daena backed, then kicked open the door, surprising the guards. She activated her own electroshock baton, which they hadn’t noticed. Three strikes later, the guards were down.

The team silently crept out and armed themselves. They then rushed behind a pillar, concealing themselves.

“Wait- there,” Leo warned, pointing and four Terror Birds walking the hall. Their beaks were all bloodstained.

SMASH! A layer of glass was shattered. There was another layer, and Dylan swore in annoyance. The shatter of the glass alerted the Terror Birds, who associated it with an intruder in their territory. They carefully looked around until they found the crowd.

One cawed loudly, a warning to scare the crowd off. If the crowd had listened, the vicious birds probably would not have attacked. But the crowd paid no attention, focused on cheering Dylan on.

The lead Terror Bird screeched loudly, as a signal to attack and a signal for help.

The Kelenken ran to the crowd, who finally noticed the monsters.

“What the hell?!” one man yelled.

“I’m not falling for this, government!” another shouted. “Birds are just government spies!”

Then, those two were silenced, one by a head split open, and another who was kicked to the ground and crushed.

“Take them down!” Dylan ordered.

The crowd muttered in confusion, Dylan’s spell broken, now that the prehistoric monsters had arrived. The crowd screamed as the Terror Birds began their massacre.

A Terror Bird approached our smarter heroes, who watched the crowd die, helpless. Suddenly, a warning call rang out and the seven of them turned to a Kelenken staring directly at them.

Jack fired a dart, but the Terror Bird jumped to a side and the tranquilizer bounced off a pillar and hit poor Franklin instead, who went limp, knocked out.

“Well that’s no good at all,” Jack moaned.

The Terror Bird walked forward and the group backed off. Then, it stopped, deciding to feast on the unconscious Franklin instead. It raised up its head and struck down, but just before it could kill the man a dart appeared on the Terror Bird, then another.

“All in a day’s work I suppose,” Jack mumbled, firing one last dart.

The Terror Bird rolled its eyes and crumpled to the floor, defeated.

Meanwhile, the now terrified Swedish mafia boss backed away from a Terror Bird. As he backed away, someone in the crowd bumped against him, causing him to lose his balance.

“No!” he yelled in despair, as he fell, ruining his expensive suit and dropping the lethal gun.

He was now an easy target for a Terror Bird. One approached him, and Dylan raised up the TSC pistol.

“P-please no!”

But his cries fell on deaf ears as the Kelenken advanced. The mafia boss fired a dart, but it bounced off the Terror Bird’s crimson stained beak.

Dylan Roth screamed in pain as the Terror Bird stepped on his right leg, crushing the limb. The Kelenken raised its head, then swung it downwards in an ax-like motion. 

There was no time to scream as the beak plunged into Dylan’s chest, killing him instantly. 

Our heroes were now back in the storage closet, where they had placed Char and Franklin to wait out the attack. 

“We need to stop them!” Jack reminded.

“Then we’ll need their attention,” Stacy responded, a cunning look on her face. “Does anyone have some matches?”

“Franklin does,” Char informed, producing a box of matches.

“Someone, please go to where they keep the water that puts out fire.”

Jack understood what Stacy’s plan was. He collected everyone’s guns and he and Char left the room.

A long moment later, Stacy left the room, pulled off her sweater, and lit it on fire. The smoke raised and soon, the fire alarm rang, causing the Terror birds to stop the attack.

As soon as the alarm rang, Stacy retreated back to the closet. Water rained down from dispensers, soaking the Terror Birds. The Terror Birds all began to charge towards the closet, but Stacy shut the door. Beaks smashed through the doors, like axes chopping down trees.

“Is this what’s supposed to happen?!” Leo panicked. “Sacrifice us!?”

“No, just wait.”

Suddenly, all the Terror Birds dropped to the floor, just as the rain ended.

You see, the number of narcotics inside the TSC guns was quite a lot, and Jack simply removed the needle darts, then removed the device where the narcotic was injected into the darts. Last, the small container of narcotics was emptied into the water that was used to extinguish fires. The narcotic concentration was more than enough to soak into the skin and render the birds unconscious.

“The portal! We’ve got to close it!” Stacy reminded.

“I’ll call Xavier,” Daena offered.

Three minutes later, Sukie and Xavier arrived. The two were in the area where the portal was, but now, there was nothing.

“Daena, tell the others that the portal is gone. Tell Kitten to call Central Command. Looks like we’ll be getting our soldiers sooner than expected.”

In fifteen minutes, the airport was crawling with soldiers and DAE officials. Xavier came up to meet Jack.

“You see all these soldiers here? They’ll be joining your team. That’s why we had to share rooms though we have many such living quarters.”

“Yes sir, but the birds?”

“They will be placed in the containment room onboard your plane. Then we will place it in a habitat in Wyvern Base. You see, we knew this would happen.”

So an hour later, about thirty new agents were on board the plane, Jack’s team sleeping peacefully, and the Terror Birds content with their new habitat. Kitten stopped on the way home at a taxidermist, where he wanted the head preserved.

All in a day’s work.

And no one noticed one last thing. Four baby Terror Birds, fleeing into the night. They were young enough to hunt, but still weak.

Nobody noticed them escape through an open door.

Nobody bothered to check the camera footage before deleting it.

Nobody noticed them heading into the countryside.

Nobody noticed them break into a chicken coop.

The farmers, however, did notice three dead chickens the next day. They were ripped to pieces and strewn all over the pen. The local news called it a Chupacabra attack, even though no blood was drained. 

People only started to care when their pets started going missing, later found in bits and pieces, crimson blood staining dark alleyways and corners.

Someone, however, found it.

All in a day’s work?

Weird Days  
The fisherman stood on his small boat’s deck, fishing. It was a windy day on the small island-town of Fort Drio. The moon glowed bright in the skies, oddly bright and large for the time. The man liked windy days. The fish always seemed to love the food those days.

Out in the distance over the swirling blanket of waves, a large cargo ship seemed to drift towards the harbor.

The man checked the schedule, which told him that no ship should be coming in at the time. In fact, no large cargo ships were supposed to be arriving, not until the next month.

The man picked up the radio and dialed for the harbor. “A… A cargo ship is coming in,” he informed. “Did you guys make a last minute call or…?”

“No ships are supposed to be coming in,” was the response.

“Well, one is, just look.” 

The gargantuan cargo ship kept heading towards the harbor, unchanged in its direction. No words could be read from the ship’s hull, obscured by untold years of weathering.

The cargo ship began to pass the fishing boat looming tall like a skyscraper. 

The cargo ship should have slowed down. It did not, and kept going at full speed.

Full speed, that is, towards the docks.

Eyes widened as the ship did not lose speed and crashed into a dock, causing steel to be warped and a dent to be caused. An unfortunate ship was crushed by the speed of the ship, forever lost to the ocean.

Yet the massive cargo ship did not lose power, and kept charging, shrieking in warped metal and coming aground. Giant boxes that were upon the ship fell as the ship shook. 

An earthquake seemed to rise throughout the entire harbor as the giant ship came aground, at last resting, crashed into an overlooking cliff.

Nobody was hurt, save for an unfortunate drunk who took walks.

Over the next hour, the island’s police gathered, led by the lead detective, a one Detective Stephanie Rengage. She was a seasoned detective, having solved top-priority cases before. But really, she was on vacation, acting as a leader to quickly aid the islanders. A large stairway was quickly assembled, and the officers were on the main deck, all trying to understand what had happened.

“What happened…” wondered the detective. “Now, any reports on who this ship belongs to?”

“No idea,” an officer replied. “We haven’t found any papers in anything, nor opened any of these containers.”

“Can we get into the rest of the ship?”

“Soon, once we finish documenting everything up here. Also, there appears to be… dust everywhere.”

Stephanie dismissed the officer and walked over to the door separating the outside from the inside. 

Just as she was informed, the glass door was covered in a strange, orange dust. She could not see in, and whoever was inside could not see out. But, nobody had been seen leaving. It seemed as if nobody was even on the ship itself.

The detective wiped away the dust, revealing a clouded dust. Still, she would be able to see inside.

Stephanie peered inside, pressing her face.

Inside, she saw a few chairs, with a figure sitting on it, but she could only see the body of the figure. 

Suddenly, something scuttled across the floor, making a scuttling noise like crabs. Stephanie looked to see nothing but a multi-legged dark red mass scurry across the room.

“Detective Rengage!” someone called. Stephanie turned her head to see an officer. “We’re ready to enter the cargo ship.”

“Alright,” Stephanie replied, stepping away from the door. 

The officer shook the door’s handle. Locked.

“Just kick it open.”

“What?!”

Stephanie shook her head and rushed over. Next, she kicked the doors open, easily breaking the fragile lock.

The orange dust flew into the air, temporarily obscuring vision. When the crisp dust cleared, the inside was visible.

And there was blood.

The figure who had been sitting on a chair was a corpse. A corpse, who was missing a face. Instead of a face, was a bloody gaping hole where teeth, tongue, and innards were visible. 

It appeared as if something had pushed itself up the person’s throat, then burst through its face. 

All across the metal room were traces and bursts of crimson blood. Along with the blood paint, was a slick orange substance that seemed slimy in texture. Around the edges of the goo were the orange dust.

“I think,” Stephanie began, “we need the FBI here.”

But, of course, the FBI was not pinged.

Instead, at around noon, the members of the DCU assembled on the plane, after each finishing off a hearty meal.

Xavier activated the powerpoint while the rest of the team – Kitten, Daena, Leo, Stacy, Maizie, and Jack gathered. They sat, awaiting orders.

“Welcome!” Xavier greeted. “Ready for another day of creature finding?”

“Uh… no,” Maizie joked.

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that, Maizie,” Xavier replied. “Now, according to our sources, tachyon energy was detected onboard a cargo ship- which means portal. This cargo ship crashed into the harbor of the island-town of Fort Drio, where local authorities investigated.”

“Gross,” Stacy rasped, just as Xavier switched to the slide that showed numerous bodies with a bloody hole instead of a face. The others made a face, disgusted by bodies.

“We diverted the FBI request and we will be posing as the FBI. Only the first few decks have been explored, where about twenty-nine bodies have been discovered, all missing a face. The ship has been quarantined to prevent whatever did this from escaping. We… need to find out what creature is doing this, as usual. Dismissed- we’ll land there in about four hours.”

During the four hours, the team prepared and researched, but once it was clear nobody had any idea what the creature was, everybody relaxed.

So instead of doing anything productive, everyone played video games, took naps, and relaxed. Leo and Dana went on a date, going to the gym to spar.

Four agonizing hours passed, and soon, the team arrived at the airport of an island near Fort Drio. They would need to take a boat to the island. The island was in Hawaii, so time seemed to go backwards, and they had a second lunch. 

Soon, the team left the plane.

“Well, boat time!” cheered Daena. “I never get to go on boats. I go on too many submarines.”

Thirty minutes later, the six arrived at the town. They split up, Jack, Daena, and Kitten were investigating the main scene, while Maizie, Leo, and Stacy asked around town to interview people. Xavier had returned to take a call.

“Ahem,” the detective began, “you can’t be here.”

“We’re FBI,” Kitten cooly lied.

“Can I see your badges?” 

“Here.” Daena produced three badges for the trio.

“Good, I’m Detective Stephanie Rengage, we’ve been waiting for you guys. You do know what happened here, right?”

“Missing face?” Jack said, pointing to his face as he did.

“Yes, we haven’t moved any of the bodies in case… I don’t know. Just in case.”

“Take us to the bodies,” Daena advised. “I’m a doctor, I’ll be able to identify something.”

“Follow me,” the detective told, guiding them towards the entrance.

The four entered, where they saw the first of the corpses, laid on the floor with two people wearing lab coats around the body.

“Any clues?” Daena asked.

“No,” one of the scientists replied. “We haven’t been able to find out what did this.”

The three nodded, Jack took notes, Kitten chewed on some gum, and Daena wrote as well. The detective led them deeper into the cargo ship.

“You,” the detective said, pointing at an officer, “you, you, and you, follow us!”

The officers nodded and the group began the trek deeper into the ship.

Bodies littered the area, strewn about, all with a bloody gaping hole as a face. The odd orange goo was everywhere, some crystalized into dust, while others were intermixed with the blood. 

Without warning, a body moved, writhing in pain.

“There!” Daena shouted. “Survivor!”

“Got it!” Stephanie notified, running towards the moving body.

The four arrived at the body, Daena turned the woman over, revealing her intact face. “What happened here?!” Daena questioned.

“Help me…” the injured woman moaned.

“Alright, detective- get us some paramedics!” Jack commanded. “We’ll try to bring her back!”

The detective wasted no time for words and ran back to the safer zones.

“I think she’s safe to move-” Daena began, “-now, come on, lift!”

The others held the body, and lifted. Daena led the way, going to the stairs back to the topmost floor. Slowly, step by step, they almost made it when-

“Daena, something’s happening!” Kitten panicked.

“What-”

The mouth began to open, wider than any human should be able to. The jaw appeared to be stretching, trying to rip itself from the body.

From the deep abyss of the throat, a single, black limb-like tentacle emerged, but it wasn’t like any tentacle anybody had seen. On the edges were patterned rings, blacker in color. On the tip and suckers of the tentacle were small hooked spikes, which pulsed with the beating flow of blood.

More of the long tentacle kept appearing, until it bent to the side, reaching the injured woman’s neck, where it latched on with the hooks. The human tried to scream, but whatever it was inside her throat, it blocked that as well.

“Daena?” Kitten worried. “What now?!”

“No idea,” Daena confessed. “Just quickly!”

The three resumed walking, faster than before.

Meanwhile, a second extending tentacle-limb emerged, equally strange as the first one. It grew longer, dragging itself out from the innards, then wrapping around the throat and latching on.

At last, the three arrived out in the safe zone, just as the paramedics arrived. But the paramedics had no idea what to do.

“Well then, I think- well, probably, this… this creature, is responsible for the deaths!” Daena declared. “We just need to get it out of her!”

“But how?” Kitten pointed out. “Is there even a way?”

“Wait, what if we don’t pull it out!” Jack suggested.

“How will that help?” Daena inquired.

“Stacy once told me that a parasite keeps its host alive, so sending it inwards may work!”

“Yes, but how do we get it to go back?” Kitten wondered.

“Those tentacles must be sensitive,” Daena realized. “Quick, someone get me a knife!”

Jack passed on the order to the medics, who promptly gave Daena a knife. Daena then put on some gloves she always kept, then grabbed one of the latching tentacles.

With one single slice, the tentacle was cut in two.

A shrill shriek was heard from inside the body as the creature’s other tentacle retreated back inside, causing a waving bulge in the throat.

“Well then,” Kitten began, talking to the medics, “get this woman into surgery- and take out that creature, but keep it alive.”

“I’ll have the rest of the team interview her at the hospital,” Jack offered.

Daena nodded half-noticing, examining the severed tentacle.

The ambulance drove off into the distance, where the woman would be taken into surgery.

“Now what?” Detective Stephanie asked.

“Quarantine the area,” Daena ordered. “We can’t let any of these things escape.”

“But first,” Kitten interjected, “check the ship’s hydrophore system. I do believe it may offer up some clues.”

“Got it, I’ll send some people to check the water supply.”

One exhausting hour later, the team was notified that the woman was out of surgery and was now resting in a hospital. Meanwhile, the parasitic creature was recovered- alive, and sent to a hotel room that was rented, which Daena and Stacy were now observing.

Jack and Kitten remained at the cargo ship, where they discovered that the water system contained traces of ammonia, and something that looked like almost-microscopic broken shells. Meanwhile Maizie and Leo went to interrogate the woman.

“Ah, you’re awake,” Leo addressed. “I’m Agent Leo Weiss of the… FBI, and my partner is Maizie Cloude, another agent.”

“Okay…”

“Let’s start by asking for your name,” Maizie insisted. “Do you know who you are?”

“Yes, Avery Rivali.”

“That’s something, now, tell us everything you know about the ship you were on,” Leo pressured.

“I’m an employee of Plexerco Corporations. I’m just an engineer to make sure the cargo ship was running. What we were transporting, I don’t know. Plexerco only transports stuff, mostly by air and sea. We were travelling from Madagascar, to China, to a small island, then to here, and that’s about it.”

“That’s all?” Leo puzzled. “What about what killed the others?”

“I don’t know. People just started fainting suddenly, and some people disappeared or fell into the ocean. It happened the first day, when someone fainted. Then this creature came out of him. We caught the creature in a bucket, but it escaped. The next day. Three people died. The deaths just kept going.”

“Odd…” Maizie pondered.

“Oh, and the water tasted funny.”

“Well, looks like that’s all for now,” Leo decided. “Maizie, send this recording to Stacy and Daena, see what they make of it.”

Maizie finished recording the witness statement, then sent it over to Stacy and Daena.

Stacy and Daena were testing the severed tentacle when they got the recording.

“Odd indeed,” Daena pointed out, “I think we need to investigate the main creature now.”

“Look, why do I need to be here?” Stacy asked. “My skills are better used fighting and shooting stuff, not investigating some boring old-”

“You’re the animal expert,” Daena cut it. “I’m more of a fighter than you, anyways.”

Stacy sighed and moved over to sit at a table, where the creature was trapped inside a cage made of glass.

The creature looked almost to be a squid, with eight tentacles, though one was cut short. But they looked like they were bony, more of a limb than a tentacle. The body was slender, long. Instead of a beak, however, was a mouth that resembled more of a Venus-Flytrap, all sharp with teeth.

“Ugh, those teeth,” Stacy groaned. “If these are just babies, how dangerous are the adult ones…”

“Stacy, just tell me if you know what it is, then you can go.”

“Huh… odd,” Stacy began, “it has gills… but that… lungs also, perhaps?”

“How so? Wait! The detective said she saw something crawl across the floor.”

“Yeah, not a prehistoric animal I can tell.”

“Well then, you’re dismissed. Go join Jack and Kitten at the cargo ship. They’re probably doing something useless.”

Stacy nodded and left the room.

Daena took out her laptop and called Xavier, who answered the call.

“Xavier,” greeted Daena. 

“Great, now what?” Xavier asked, a tinge of annoyance in his voice.

“A level nine extermination,” Daena requested. “The creatures we found… are too dangerous. According to what Jack and Kitten found in the water supply, they could infiltrate the world’s water systems… and kill us all.”

“So, a time portal opened in the ship’s water system, which infected the water, infecting everyone with this creature?”

“Correct, a parasitoid, I believe. Based on my initial observation, I believe it may metamorph into something far more dangerous as an adult.”

“I’ll have an extermination team ready. Your mission is over.”

But unbeknownst to anyone, the mission wasn’t over just yet.

“Ah Stacy!” Jack called, seeing Stacy enter the cargo ship’s main deck. “Want some gum?”

“Oh, sure.”

“Stacy, glad you’re here,” Kitten addressed. “Anyone else coming here?”

“No.”

“Good, Xavier just ordered a high-level extermination- that means fire bombing the ship,” Kitten informed. “Due to the fact that they passed from the water system. He fears it may endanger the world. Now, if you’d like to join me, I’ll be investigating one last time, checking out the cafeteria deck. That may offer some clues, because if anything ran off and survived, they’d need food.”

“I see. I’ll join in. Jack?”

“Nah,” Jack shuddered. “I’m tired of this mission.” 

“Understandable- it is a dark and spooky place..”

“Not in that way, Stacy.”

Kitten laughed and Stacy walked over to the entrance. Kitten followed, and the two entered. The area had been lit by electric lanterns, and even though it seemed safe, the two still drew their pistols, lethal, this time.

“What do you suppose the adult is like?” wondered Stacy, imagining what they would find.

“No idea. But it’s got to be in the water, right?”

“I think it may be terrestrial as well. I saw gills, but a land-breathing system as well.”

Kitten nodded, unsure of what to say next.

The two continued in silence as they soon reached the cafeteria door. Stacy opened it slightly, giving a loud creak. 

“Shush!” Stacy warned. “Something is in there.”

“What?” Kitten asked. “Let me see!”

Stacy and Kitten bunched up together, like peas in a pod as the two watched a large silhouette of a creature tearing through an ice-cream freezer.

Shadow tentacles danced, throwing boxes this way and that. But then, the creature paused. 

In the darkness, a head raised, one that did not seem like any animal ever encountered before.

“I think…” Kitten mumbled, “it noticed us.”

“Good observation, Sherlock.”

“Do we run? I want to run.”

The creature shrieked loudly, alerting another, who appeared from the shadows. 

The first creature stepped into a brief glimmer of light, leaving a slender neck with the head of a Venus-Flytrap’s. Teeth were a mess, hooking up and down, left, and right. But yet, the creature seemed incomplete. 

It wasn’t fully grown, but it was dangerous enough.

“Run!” Kitten screamed.

Stacy and Kitten ran up the stairs, just as the first creature burst into the area, bunching up its limblike tentacles to gallop across the room.

“Gah!” Kitten cried, just as a tentacle wrapped around his leg. Blood spilled on the floor as the limb’s hooked claws latched. “It got me!”

“Wait-wait-wait…” Stacy murmured, looking around the room to find something to cut it off. Stacy then realized she had a gun, then fired at the limb. That seemed to do nothing, and the bullets seemed to bounce off. “What now?!”

“I… I guess it’s goodbye. I always wanted to know you better-”

“Wait, an axe!”

“Oh, how convenient- it’s almost as if our creator didn’t have a better idea!”

Stacy smashed into the emergency-fire-axe, which she then took.

With one swishing swoop, Stacy brought down the axe, slicing off the edges of the squid’s tentacle. The creature whined in pain, screaming in an atonal cadence. The two humans ran to the top of the staircase.

“Ahem, now let me deal with this,” Kitten cooly bragged, picking up a grenade from his jacket pocket.

“Wait, you had a grenade that whole time?!”

“Oh, well… I didn’t really…”

“Just throw it!”

Kitten removed the pin and threw it at the two creatures.

Unexpectedly, a tentacle caught it, then threw it to the side, where it exploded harmlessly.

Kitten and Stacy ran, firing back as they did so.

After an eternity of running, the dynamic duo approached the exit, which they opened, then closed.

“Quick, Kitten- unpin a grenade to explode just as they get here!”

Kitten did so, and ran.

Behind them, the galloping creature jumped through the glass.

Then, a burst of flame exploded, incinerating the creatures and spilling orange goo all over Stacy, Kitten, and the deck.

“Well, I guess Jack was right,” Stacy joked.

“Ahem,” somebody voiced just behind the two. They turned to see Daena. “Entering the ship? Really? Normally, I would do that, but you could have gotten killed… or worse.”

“Right, whatever,” Kitten deflected. “Can we get out of here now?”

“Yes, you two are getting a decontamination bath as soon as we get back on the plane.”

Kitten and Stacy sighed sarcastically.

And that, was that.

Later that day, several DAE drones set up powerful bombs all around the ship. Some collected evidence, some photographed the area, and one even managed to catch a baby one.

And so, the case of the mysterious parasitoid squid had been handled, though nobody was sure what time it had come from, or what its true adult form looked like.

But some mysteries are destined to go unsolved.

The parasitoid squid/octopus will return.

Cluster  
“Welcome to Vibrant News, I’m Maxwell Stevenson and I am here to give you the daily dose of news. Last time, a tropical storm formed just off our Louisiana coast. Let’s hope it won’t hit Knife’s Edge! Today, we have storm chaser Caelan Grace heading inside the storm with his private jet,” Maxwell, the announcer announced. “Tracy, let’s see Caelan in action.”

The television screen promptly changed to live footage of the inside of a jet. It was a cockpit, and the camera was aimed to view the pilots and to see through the glass. Lighting appeared in crackling marvel as the torrents of rain boomed down on the jet.

“This is amazing, as it is with anytime flying in a storm!” Caelan commented, standing in front of the camera.

Without warning, the video fizzed to nothingness.

“Um, Caelan, we can’t see you there,” Maxwell reported, “can you try to fix your video? Our viewers would love to see you.”

“I’m trying there’s something wrong-” Caelan stopped and gasped, “what is that?”

“Caelan, how about describe what you’re seeing.”

“It-it looks like some sort of colorful glow coming from inside a cloud- WHOA, the rain just got a lot harder!”

“Caelan, do you know what the glow is? Is it a weather balloon?”

“I- – – we – – going – inside – investi- -gate – -”

“Caelan?” 

The audio coming from Caelan was replaced with just static.

“Sir, should we go to a commercial?” the offscreen Tracy asked.

“Absolutely.”

A weird commercial played, an animation of bread talking, who said, “It’s everywhere. It’s dangerous. But we know you want it. That delicious starch. This is gluten. We are everywhere.”

“Tracy, check the tower pings,” Caelan ordered.

“On it-” Tracy answered, “-something isn’t right here.”

“What is? People are losing valuable moments of ‘StormChasers with Caelan Grace’.”

“His plane- it isn’t pinging back or showing up on any radar!”

“That can’t be- you’re saying that plane simply vanished?!”

“Maxwell!” someone called, a voice who was clearly confused. “Weather is going bonkers! Apparently a large hurricane is somehow forming right where Caelan was investigating!”

“That’s impossible! Something must be wrong!”

“All our equipment seems to be all correct. Even worse, according to our computers, it’ll be headed to our city Knife’s Edge and our town Knife’s Blade in two days!”

“Maxwell!” another called, “Our sister location is also reporting the exact same thing!”

“Then what the hell is going on?!”

Daniel Napoleon then paused the video.

“This is footage from the Knife’s Edge, Louisiana Vibrant News building,” he began, “we have found tachyon particles high in the sky. If our predictions are correct, this may be a prehistoric hurricane.”

“And now we know portals don’t just form on the ground,” Stacy concluded.

“That’s true, and one more thing,” Xavier began, “Sukie has informed us that while most portals are linked to two locations- the present and a specific point in the past, another type of portal connects multiple locations to the present. It’s possible this sky portal may not be just an ordinary portal but the second, which we are calling a Class C portal.”

“How do we know it’s a Class C?” a soldier inquired.

“Rumours about a pterosaur sighting have been going on in both cities, as well as small, flying lizards,” Dan answered, pointing a laser at the screen. “According to eyewitness reports, we can’t be sure if these animals co-existed.”

“Now, we have modified a plane Gatling gun-” Xavier began.

“Wait, the plane has guns?!” Leo shrieked, shocked. Leo loved talking about weapons, as he could be seen as a generic mercenary. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?!”

“Justin and Lillian’s in charge of that. Now, it will now release two drones carrying the Time Cube and deactivate it. Is everyone ready?”

The entire room nodded in approval.

“Good,” Dan congratulated, “we will be sending two teams. One team, led by Jack, Kitten, and Stacy will investigate the pterosaur sightings in Knife’s Edge, while Leo, Doctor Daena, and Maizie will investigate the Knife’s Blade ones.”

“Wait, me?” Maizie queried, perplexed, “I never go on missions.”

“You’ll need the experience.” 

“Fine.”

“The rest of us not on the ground team will be either waiting at Wyvern Base or exploring the plane. Justin and Lily should be able to deal with this themselves,” Xavier explained. “Well then- four hours.”

Everyone was promptly dismissed. Some stayed to play on new arcade machines that had recently been installed, while others explored their new home. Most of the ones that hadn’t gotten a chance to join any team stayed back at the luxurious Wyvern Base. Meanwhile, Kitten and Daena kept boasting about the decapitated Terror Bird head. Some didn’t believe them, but Kitten showed them footage he had sneaked out from the elevator cameras.

Four hours later, the plane landed at Knife’s Airport. Jack, Kitten, and Stacy took one jeep to investigate Knife’s Edge. Leo, Maizie, and Daena took another wrangler to investigate the Knife’s Blade sightings.

“Ah, Knife’s Edge,” Kitten acknowledged, “it’s been a while since I’ve been here.”

“You’ve been here before?” Jack inquired. “What happened?”

“Well, it’s classified, but a portal incident did happen a few years back.”

“Really?” Stacy wondered, “What happened.”

“Well, it’s classified, but it involved a certain Portal Corporations-”

“Wait, I thought that company sold replicas of dinosaurs?! It was debunked that they didn’t create any time portals!”

“Ah, but they did. We covered it up by saying the water supply was drugged and everyone rampaged and hallucinated,” Kitten explained, “only a select few know dinosaurs are real. We’ve recently erased some people’s memories of that. There were quite a lot of dinosaurs, including Terror Birds. But my team only arrived after a mercenary team dealt with them.”

“Peculiar indeed,” Jack commented.

Thirty minutes later they arrived in Knife’s Edge. The soldiers were ordered to investigate, pairing in teams of three. 

“Alright,” Stacy began, “according to this list, we should be asking a Cashier by the name of Eileen. She works at a jewelry store near here.”

Kitten started to say something but stopped.

“Well, let’s go!” Jack exclaimed.

The trio went inside the store and whipped out their fake FBI badges. The manager promptly produced a cashier named Eileen.

“The FBI investigating some weird sightings?” she queried in disbelief, “It can’t be that bad.”

“It might be some new device or a new species. I don’t give the orders,” Kitten explained. “I follow my orders.”

“So, what exactly did you see?” Jack asked.

“I was out walking home from the store,” Eileen began, “it was around eight P.M, and so I was pretty tired. Oh, I was also walking with Davis Eidi, one of the other cashiers. I haven’t heard back from him.”

“Do you think he’s missing?” Stacy questioned.

“Maybe? He does that,” she answered, then continued the story, “we were walking when we heard this noise in the sky. Then we looked up and saw these weird shadows glide downwards. They landed on the roof and we saw the small creatures fully. It was like one of the things in books- a ptero-something. The creature then flew away. I ran away, but Davis stayed back to investigate it. He thought they were some sort of new bird.”

“This is peculiar indeed,” Jack commented, “first the storm, now this…”

“Can you guess where the creature may have gone?” Stacy asked.

“Sure- Knifewood, the shared forest for Knife’s Edge and Knife’s Blade.”

“Alright, thanks for answering these questions,” Kitten concluded.

The trio departed, now being back on the main road. They entered the vehicle and Kitten began to drive.

“Knifewood it is,” Stacy stated.

Kitten complied and drove. Knifewood was a short distance away, and within minutes, they had arrived. The first bits of the storm were beginning to touch down, and it began to rain.

“Look, footprints,” Jack pointed out, several human prints embedded into the mud. “Shall we follow them?”

“Obviously, yes,” Stacy agreed.

Kitten handed out TSC pistols and they began to follow the footprints. As they walked, they decided to make small talk.

“Funny, we haven’t encountered any dinosaurs,” Jack commented.

“Terror Birds are technically dinosaurs,” Stacy informed.

“Yeah, but I think it’d be cool to encounter raptors or parasaurus or a big dinosaur sometime.”

“Be careful what you wish for,” Kitten jokes.

“That’s true, but it would be really cool,” Stacy countered, “I would love to get an opportunity to study dinosaurs.”

“Stacy?! Guys?!” came Leo’s voice, “What are you guys doing here?!”

“Leo?” Kitten queried, “What?!”

From the shadows, Leo, Maizie, and Daena emerged.

“There’s a dead body over there,” young Maizie notified, noticeably shocked.

Everyone headed to the dead body and surrounded it. After some digging, they found an ID, which contained the name. This was cashier Eileen’s friend, Davis.

The body was as if a million birds and descended upon it. Its eyes had been plucked out, the skin was ripped apart, bone was visible, blood, and gore all around the small clearing. No animals sang the song of nature. It was an almost perfect silence. Without the ID, the body would’ve been unrecognizable.

But, let’s jump back fifteen minutes to Leo, Daena, and Maizie. They were walking in some light rain.

“Let’s investigate this sighting- Jeff Cesa, he’s at the local emergency building, saying something strange attacked him in the woods,” Daena suggested.

“Attacked?!” Maizie shrieked, “I don’t want to be attacked!”

“I’ll protect you,” Leo assured, “that’s my job.”

A moment later they were interviewing Jeff Cesa. He had strange bites all over his body. His shirt and pants were shredded.

“Dude, what happened to you?” Leo interrogated, flicking up his fake FBI badge.

“I was just fishing in the woods,” he began, “I was fishing in the river and had caught about eight or so fish. Out of nowhere, I saw this weird bat thing- only it wasn’t a bat. It looked like a lizard with wings! It was small, it was maybe the size of a shoe.”

“Interesting,” commented Maizie, “I wonder what it is…”

“Continue,” Daena commanded.

“I paid no attention to it, but the thing started eating one of the fish I’d caught! It chirped and a few more came,” continued the man, “I decided to save the rest of my fish and left. Suddenly there were so many of them! They came from the trees and started to swarm at the fish! I dropped the bucket and ran, but some of them kept following me and attacking me! Then I managed to get here!”

“How peculiar…” trailed Leo, “where was this?”

“Knifewood.”

Now we are back in Knifewood, where all six of them had shared stories. The rain was getting heavier, and the sun was no longer visible. It became dark fast as if it was nighttime.

“What do we do about this body?” Maizie inquired, visibly anxious. “We can’t just leave it here.”

“We’ll bring it back to the plane,” Jack decided.

“But the plane took off to shut down the portal!” Stacy reminded.

“Then we’ll bring it to the Knife’s Blade emergency room,” Daena suggested. 

Jack nodded in approval. After some lifting, the teams managed to transport the body into the trunk of Leo’s jeep. Then, the two vehicles began to race to Knife’s Blade. As they did, lightning cracked like unholy magic while the thunder roared. The rain was growing ever worse, and bits of ice were also raining down.

“WHAT THE ABSOLUTE HELL?!” a nurse shouted as Leo and Daena brought the dead body into the building. “WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?!”

“Like we said, the FBI,” Daena smugly replied.

“Now we have an area where to put this body,” Stacy ordered.

“W-we- our medical examiner’s office, the mortuary is combined with this building. Take a right, then the second left for the office.”

“Thank you.”

The storm grew ever stronger, growing larger every second. Ice rained down, destroying pipes and windows. Luckily, the medical building had very tough windows, but cracks were starting to spiderweb. The streets began to flood, catching almost everyone off-guard.

Up in the air, Justin and Lily flew through the exponentially increasing storm. Ice bounced off the plane, mostly harmless. A few cabin windows had broken and Xavier had to activate the airtight doors.

A klaxon activated.

“What’s going on now?!” Justin shrieked.

“Watch out!” Lily shouted.

A giant chunk of ice was heading towards the plane. It would be powerful enough to pierce the cockpit glass.

“Activate the Gatling guns and increase sensitivity to full!” Xavier ordered through the radio.

“Yes sir!” Lily replied.

From the plane’s wings, four Gatling guns emerged and began to fire at the ice, protecting the aircraft.

“Justin, how are we doing? Found the portal?!” Xavier asked, “Cause this storm can get a lot worse!”

“Yes, sir! We are approaching the portal in a minute!”

A blast of lightning hit the cockpit windows, stunning the two pilots. But it did no effect because planes are immune to lightning. Lily attempted to launch a scanning drone, but the ice destroyed the machine before it could even begin a scan.

“There!” Justin pointed out. “The portal!”

“Activating the Time Cube soon!” Xavier told.

“No!” Lily responded, yelling for attention. “The ice will only destroy it!”

“What if we go through the portal and activate it from there?! Doesn’t it take thirty seconds?!” Justin theorized, “Right?! If it’s indeed a Class C, we might appear in a safe location!”

“I agree, into the portal!” Lily decided.

“This is gonna bite me back somehow…” Xavier moaned.

The plane flew into the large portal. Clouds circled it, illuminated by all sorts of colors and-

-the other side. They were flying in a cloudless sky.

“Now!” Lily advised.

From Xavier’s location, he activated the machine that fired the Time Cube. Two drones carried it, and it began its work. Thirty seconds had begun.

“And back!” Justin asserted.

The plane entered but did not appear in the present. They were above a coast, a rocky beach with many pterosaurs jumping around.

“What happened?!” Justin whimpered.

“Class C!” Lily realized, “More than one location! Go back in!”

The plane turned and entered. Everyone desperately checked and luckily, they were back at the present. Behind them, the portal closed and due to the large size, sent great shockwaves, knocking the plane away. 

Without additional clouds and energy, the strange hurricane began to falter, now splitting up into either small tropical storms or just storm clouds. Instead of the airport, the plane landed near Knife’s Blade, preparing to pick up the others.

While the portal may have closed, the day was certainly not over.

“I’m Maxwell Stevenson, and if you’re listening, this is a recording!” the reporter reported, “Our lines are all down because of the storm. The storm that just mysteriously disappeared! Something is going wrong here in Knife’s Edge! The s-sky!!”

The camera pointed to the window.

“A-as you can see, a swarm of things is flying over us and landing a-all over our town! Strange beasts are here! Stay indoo- aaaagh!”

A small winged lizard crashed through the window, followed by more. Maxwell ran away, running to his safe room. The winged demons knocked over the camera, destroying the footage as well.

Sadly, his assistant Tracy wasn’t so lucky. The swarm descended upon her, biting and scratching in insane hunger.

The monsters flew up, fulfilled. In Tracy’s place, was an unrecognizable corpse.

“What the hell is going on?” Maizie muttered, “What is that thing?!”

“Lemme scan it,” Stacy shot back.

Our heroes were in the mortuary room, when a single pterosaur burst through the only window. Stacy had put it inside a cage. After that, Leo barricaded the windows.

“Rhamphorhynchus,” a monotonic voice sounded.

Suddenly, Kitten’s phone rang.

“Hello? Xavier? Dan?” 

“It’s Dan. Kitten, tell everyone to stay indoors!”

“What?! Why?!”

“There are these small animals flying everywhere. A swarm of them! They find a target, attack, and eat them!”

“I think we just- – Dan? Hello?”

They were all alone. Kitten reported the conversation to the others.

“Now what?!” Maizie shrieked, afraid. “We’ve got to get back to the plane or something!”

“That’s just it- We can’t!” Jack voiced.

“We also need to stop these Rhampy somethings!” Daena reminded.

“What if we all lead them away?” Stacy offered. “Then we either poison them or blow them up!”

“That might work, but we’d need bait,” Leo supported.

“I could get to the plane and synthesize a pheromone that could lead them away! Leo, you could rig this area to explode!” 

“But what about us?” Maizie asked, panicking.

“If I’m correct, these creatures will be after the pheromones, giving you time to escape!”

“But you’d need to get to the plane,” Daena reminded.

“Oh, true…”

“Wait,” Jack started, thinking, “not if we use the sewers. I saw a sewer hole nearby on the way in.”

“Then it’s a plan,” Stacy began, a slight smile on her face. “Leo will remain here to rig the place to explode while I and everyone return to the plane to synthesize a pheromone!”

Everyone had to agree. Leo rigged up a makeshift flamethrower and handed it to Stacy, who passed the cage to Jack.

The five, led by Stacy, went out of the medical building, where the pterosaurs immediately noticed them.

“There!” Jack pointed out. “Run!”

They ran, and as the pterosaurs attacked, Stacy burned them. Kitten and Daena lifted the trapdoor and jumped in. Next to jump was Maizie, then Stacy, last, Jack, who closed the circular entrance.

“We did it! We freaking did it!” Maizie crowed.

“Not yet- we still have to get to the plane!” Kitten reminded, reminding the others of what their fate would be if they failed. “Luckily, I’ve memorized the pathway to the hole nearest the plane!”

“Then what are we waiting for?!” Stacy countered. “Go! Lead the way!”

Five long minutes later they were climbing out the sewers, quite close to the plane. They ran as the small pterosaurs noticed them. However, Lily noticed them as well and activated the ramp.

And so our heroes lived, now safely inside the plane. A moment passed as Stacy worked. Another. And at last, Stacy held up a small vial of liquid pheromone.

“I need this to be able to shoot as a mist, from the back of a car,” Stacy declared.

“I’ll get right on that,” Dan replied.

“Stacy, you’ve done enough,” Daena began, “I’ll lead them back into the building.”

For that, Stacy agreed.

A moment later, everything was ready. Daena drove down the ramp, the pheromones spraying occasionally. The pterosaurs followed, and Daena drove faster. Going into town, the car was slammed into by attracted pterosaurs. Soon, she saw the medical building and prepared to crash into it.

It was closer.

And closer.

And- CRASH!

The small car drove into the building. Leo arrived, and Daena beckoned to him. Together, the two went into the sewers.

During the crash, the liquid vial had shattered, and the pheromones were attracting more of the small pterosaurs. From all around the small town, the Rhamphorhynchus were gathering to check out the building, attracted to the pheromone.

The crashed car began to burn, no doubt about to explode. Slowly, the fires neared the oil tank and-

BOOM!

With that, the car exploded. The animals were shocked, and-

BOOM!

The building exploded, incinerating the swarm of crazed pterosaurs. Skin melted, bodies exploded, and flesh burned. Smoke choked any remaining pterosaurs that had survived the heat. A lucky few escaped, never to be seen again.

And just like that, the swarm was dead, the day, over.

A Glow in the Dark  
“Behold, Florida, the land of mysterious and spooky happenings! Will our heroes catch the elusive Florida Man? Will they live to tell the tale? Watch now, on Gator Hunters!”

“What does this have to do with the mission?” Justin asked. 

“Oh, and where the hell are the others?!” Lillian growled.

Xavier sighed, turning off the projector. Across him, in the briefing room, were only Justin and Lillian. 

There was a mission… but it was in Florida.

“Ah yes, since I’m not going to use our main team for I’m sure is nothing, I’m sending you two,” Xavier explained.

“Because it is… Florida?” Lillian inquired.

“Yeah, probably nothing. We always get weird readings for Florida.”

“Okay…” Justin mumbled.

“Anyway, as I’ve been saying, a mission in Florida! You will be investigating sightings and perhaps disappearances caused by a large crocodile that as witnesses say, is as tall as a man and was… glowing. You two will be exploring some abandoned theme park, and the abandoned sewers of the area.”

“Really? Just us?” Lillian questioned. “Don’t you think you should send say, a paleontologist like Stacy to assist us?”

“Right, the others- away on a mission. Taking down some Sinoceratops or something.”

“I’ll accept,” Justin said.

“Me too,” Lillian added.

“Brilliant, you two will be going to the Florida Man abandoned theme park, which is next to the town of Florwan. Do remember to check the abandoned sewers.”

The two nodded.

Xavier smiled and waved them goodbye as he left the plane. Justin and Lillian headed to the cockpit and flew off. Soon, they put the plane into autopilot, then decided to plan.

“Alright,” Lillian began, tying her hair while speaking. According to protocol, long hair wouldn’t be able to be pulled or used, “we have the electro-batons, fire-sword, plasma-cutters… oh, and an infinite collection of guns.”

“Hmm, let’s use the plasma cutters, batons, and probably a pistol. It’s probably nothing, just a routine time-portal. Probably nothing got through.”

“Giant glowing gator?”

“Nah, it’s Florida, we’ll probably encounter the elusive Florida Man.”

“Well then, now that we’ve got our gear… what now?” Lillian wondered.

“No idea. Let’s do something fun. Like say, going through everyone’s rooms?”

“That’s what I was going to say!”

And so the two, having all the plane to themselves, went through everyone’s room.

Meanwhile, in Florida, a child, Cody, and his dog, Sandy, decided to go and explore the abandoned Florida Man park. 

The park was supposed to have many attractions about the crimes and things the Florida Man had done. Unfortunately, the Florida Man theme park had been abandoned when one such elusive Florida Man decided to throw a few molotov cocktails, ruining progress.

Floran had already been built, so they focused on bettering the town instead. Children played on the abandoned theme park nearby.

And so Cody and his dog were walking to the theme park for some fun. Except that it was night-time, and the clouds seemed especially dark. In the far distance, thunder boomed.

“Sandy, wait up!” the boy called. The dog did not respond, running off, straining at the leash. The dog barked, trying to scare off something in the dark unknown. “Sandy!”

With the final tug, the dog leapt up and broke free, running away from the park and into a marsh area. 

Cody ran after the pet, yelling its name. 

The marsh glew a light blue, lit by the algae.

Due to the loud splashing of the running dog, something awakened.

Something large.

An alligator awakened and began to swim from a deeper zone to stalk the dog. The dog kept swimming, trying to run away from something.

The gator seemed to smile and continued swimming when-

The water whooshed as the jaws of a far greater animal snapped around the gator’s midsection, threatening to snap it in two.

The gator thrashed as the new creature shook it, ramming the poor gator into the ground, branches, and whatever else was in the marsh.

At last, crimson blood dimmed the glowing algae.

By now, the boy had ran back to his town, scared.

The dog was not so lucky.

In a single snap, the jaws of the creature seemed to swallow the pet. The glowing water turned a sickly crimson, darkening around a half eaten dog head floating about. Something dangerous was in Florida, and it was not the Florida Man.

Justin and Lillian finally arrived in the town of Floran, having driven a rented car from the airport and being stopped many times, they were late, and their hotel room had been destroyed due to a rampaging lizard.

“Oh come on!” Lillian growled, pointing a finger at the manager. “What do you mean we can’t stay here now?! It’s eleven at night!”

“Sorry, but you’ll have to go to the next town over.”

“That’s thirty minutes away!” Justin grumbled. “You can’t expect us to drive there!”

“Too bad.”

Justin and Lillian groaned as they left the hotel, and back into their car, where they began the drive to the next town over, which was thirty minutes away.

But at last, they arrived, they slept, they paid, and the day was over.

“These are really good waffles,” Justin commented, stuffing a slice of waffle into his mouth.

“Yes, but we’ve got to look into this case,” Lillian reminded.

“Right, so according to the news, several pets and two children have gone missing,” Justin began, reading off a newspaper. “Other people report a glowing shape in the water going into the sewers near the Florida Man theme park.”

“Intriguing. Let us start there first.”

And with that, the dynamic duo headed off to investigate the mysterious events surrounding Florida Man Park. 

In about an hour, the two arrived at the abandoned park. The first thing they noticed was some bored kids playing around the ruins. Surprisingly, the air was fresh, and the sun was bright, bringing good luck to all.

“Hey!” Lillian called. “You kids can’t be here! We are from the FBI!”

The kids dispersed, running back to the town of Floran.

“Guns?” Justin offered, handing Lillian a TSC pistol.

“Sure.”

“Let’s split up, then meet back in two hours,” Justin suggested, “after that, we’ll… check out the abandoned sewers.”

“No, I believe the creature is in the sewers,” Lillian returned. “It won’t go out in daylight much.”

“Fine…” Justin moaned, secretly wanting to learn more about the mysterious Florida Man.

The duo passed a large statue of a Florida Man riding on a crocodile, because that totally happened. Next to the statue, was an incomplete ride that would detail the events of one night where Florida Man robbed a gluten factory by throwing an alligator through the window. Another was where Florida Man tried to steal a peacock with a donut, then got killed by an ostrich. Many more stories of the incarnations of Florida Man were told, as well as a conspiracy theory about them all. 

It was truly a shame the park had been stopped half-way.

Back to the dynamic duo, who, by now, were in front of a large hole that marked an entrance to the sewers.

“Gross,” Justin groaned.

“Masks?” Lillian asked, pulling out a mask from her backpack.

“Sure- wait, what?”

“Let’s move in.”

The duo rushed in, pointing their flashlights and weapon around, searching for any sort of monster. Nothing, so far.

The two nodded to each other and walked on the metal walkway. 

A river of swampy water awaited them below, if they fell. The swamp was clean, as the actual sewer system was never used, due to when a Florida Man threw a grenade on the swamp, and it flooded the sewers.

“Shush,” Lillian ordered. “Hear that?”

“What?”

“Nothing, I thought I heard a growl.”

Soon, they were far in the sewers that the light of day could not reach them. Only the flashlight showed them the way, and a map. But like a miracle, soon, the two entered an area where the swampy water glowed blue.

“Amazing… algae,” marvelled Justin. “We never get to see these.”

“I’m going to take a picture.”

“As will I!”

Nearby, the sound of the two awakened the creature, who swam, causing a sizable wave. “There!”

“What?! The monster- fire!”

Justin and Lillian shot at the large, roughly crocodilian shape in the water, but it swam away into the depths of the labyrinth. By the size alone, they knew this was what they were here to find. 

“Damn it! We lost it!” Justin growled.

“No worries,” Lillian smiled, “one of my tracker shots hit.”

“Ah.”

Lillian took out her tablet, switched to radar mode, and sure enough, a small red blip was on the screen, running away from them.

“What are you waiting for? Let’s get this monster!” Lillian shouted, handing Justin the tablet and running, having memorized the location.

Justin sighed and ran behind.

Soon enough, the two saw a glowing crocodilian shape moving in the water, and they fired.

But the animal was smart, and it charged at a metal support half-way in the water, which was keeping part of the walkway up.

The crocodilian slammed the support, and behind Lillian, Justin let out a yelp as his part of the walkway collapsed.

“Justin!” 

Lillian dropped her backpack and rushed, finding Justin safe, holding on to the path. His legs dangled down, and it was clear that the monster would be working to get them. The tablet had fallen into the water, distracting the monster for a while.

The monster swam… and leapt, revealing a gigantic blue-glowing crocodilian whose jaws snapped dangerously close to Justin. 

Just as the creature jumped again, Lillian managed to help Justin up, but the creature had other plans.

“Watch out!” was all Justin could yell as the creature slammed into the next support beam, causing the platform they rested on to begin to collapse. The platform turned and twisted, causing a pack of mice to squeak and fall, as well as Lillian’s bag.

But this time, they were lucky, and managed to leap onto the next platform. 

Two quick shots by Lillian, and the creature had enough, retreating into the darkness of the swamp-sewer.

“Come on, we’ve almost got it,” Lillian said.

“Fine…” Justin groaned.

In the distance, the soft golden light of day shone, revealing the place where the sewers and swamp met. No doubt, the creature was outside, as shown by the dimming traces of algae left behind.

Lillian handed Justin her spare gun, and the two chased after the creature.

A ladder let them get topside, rather than swimming. Now, they were in the swamp, a rather large one, and the murky waters reached up to their waist.

The creature swam towards the wounded Justin, leaping up and…getting shot by an array of needles, throwing the crocodilian off balance, missing Justin.

The creature gave a final groan as it fell into unconsciousness.

“Now, let’s find out what you really are,” Justin sighed, taking out his animal-scanner, which had miraculously survived.

“Sarcosuchus imperator,” a monotonic voice read.

A call to Xavier later, the day was over.

Beneath a Blanket of Snow  
The fox ran like the wind, a red-orange streak in the Canadian wilds. Another appeared, racing the other through the snow. The two foxes played, ignorant of the world. They licked each other, playing all sorts of games. Some more joined the two in the fun. The four foxes played, occasionally stopping to eat berries-

-when the ground cracked, stopping all four foxes in their tracks. The snow beneath their feet began to rise up, levitating into the air. The foxes watched in both confusion and curiosity as more snow began to swirl, transforming into a perfect sphere.

The snow then changed colors, then becoming a large sphere that swirled with color. The foxes watched the swirling dark blues and purples as the sphere achieved full form.

Without warning, two strange creatures stepped out of the swirling sphere. The creature was small, and it looked around in curiosity. One tasted a berry and found it delicious. They were small ornithopods with a tail two times longer than their body. This was Leaellynsaurua. The animals had fur, with the colorings of cherry red, soft green, and whites.

More creatures of the same came through, while the foxes decided to enter the portal.

“That’s odd,” a researcher commented, looking at a computer screen. She had a name tag that read ‘Kellen’, “all four tagged foxes just disappeared. Is it the same for you, Toby?”

“It is. How peculiar,” he replied, “Andrew, Martin you’re in charge of the place. I, Kellen, and Milly will investigate.”

The three animal researchers dressed and left the research station. Sure, they were in the middle of the Canadian wilds, but the team loved it. There were two teams, Station Alpha, and Station Beta a small distance away.

“Maybe they just managed to shake it off,” Milly guessed.

“We used the new injection trackers on them,” Kellen clarified.

“They were last seen near here,” Toby clarified, “let’s start looking.”

“Where could they be? They were just outside the station,” Milly wondered.

So the three searched the surroundings, looking for the foxes. If they could find the foxes, they would be able to fix the trackers. They did not find the foxes, nor the portal, which had closed when they were changing into better outfits.

The shy Leaellynasaurua stayed away from the humans, scared.

Kellen trudged through the snow on heavy boots, searching for the missing foxes. Little did she know that the steps alerted a dangerous creature far below her. As she stepped, the creature tracked until-

Only a scream was heard.

“Kellen ?!” Toby shouted, “What happened?!”

“Kell?!” Milly joined in.

In place of where Kellen had been, there was only a hole that was filling quickly. The others got there just as the snow-filled the hole, hiding the disturbance.

“The footprints all lead to here…” muttered Toby.

“This is impossible. All around is snow! She can’t have just walked away, and yet she’s gone!”

“Let’s go back,” Toby decided, “maybe we can use her shoe tracker.”

Underneath the snow, the tracker and shoe were crushed, stained crimson with blood. 

“Now, who wants to go to Canada!” Dan presented, exclaiming the news with a false joyous tone. Everyone was in the briefing room, listening to Dan. “We’ve detected a slight tachyon energy outburst in the Canadian wilderness near a research station. Due to our… parameters, only a few people will investigate, those people being, Jack, Stacy, Maizie, and Kitten.”

“Not me?” Leo asked, “Why not?”

“As I said, parameters,” Dan explained, “Leo will be in charge of this plane. Xavier, Sukie, and I have an important meeting to go to regarding Scorpion and the artifact.”

“I see. This will be fun.”

“The four will be masquerading as new researchers. Two hours ago, someone on that team went missing. Just tracks leading somewhere and gone. Okay, dismissed.”

Dan and Xavier went off the plane to Wyvern Base to their conference. As soon as our pilots were given the all-clear, the plane took off.

Lillian set the plane on auto-pilot.

“Hey Justin, let’s take a walk.”

“Xavier says one of us needs to stay here in case someone attacks us!”

“Xavier isn’t here and I doubt Leo will care.”

“You are so evil. But yes, let’s take a walk.”

With nothing else to do, Leo was throwing a makeshift party with the soldiers and agents. Justin and Lillian joined, but not before setting an alarm to get back in the cockpit in about four hours.

And that was that.

Four hours later, they neared the outpost. Justin and Lillian activated hover mode and had the plane hover just above the trees.

“Wait a minute,” Maizie began, “how do we get down?”

“We um, put an inflatable trampoline on the ground and jump,” Kitten explained. “Yeah, I didn’t want to tell you guys.”

The vehicles were cleared, returned to a secret basement onboard the plane. Daena lowered the ramp as Kitten prepared the three others.

“B-but we’ve never done this before!” Stacy protested.

“Oh calm down,” Kitten replied, “it’s only a few. Plus, me and Daena do this all the time.”

Kitten threw down a small frisbee-like object and pressed a button. The object blew up with air and became a large bouncy block. Kitten jumped, bouncing on the device. Next, it was Maizie and Jack, and last, Stacy.

In the end, it was a cool new experience.

“So we’ll be here for only twelve hours,” Kitten informed, “so now it is twelve, and a helicopter will pick us up at midnight.”

“Then let’s do this,” Jack happily supported.

“I wonder if we’ll finally encounter dinosaurs,” Stacy muttered.

Out of the corner of her eye, Stacy saw a quick movement along the trees.

“There!”

Stacy ran, quickly catching up with the creature. The rest of the team followed, and soon discovered Stacy carrying the peculiar Leaellynasaurua in her arms.

“Whoa! A dinosaur!” Maizie giggled, stroking the cute little creature. “What is it?”

“Judging by its long tail, I’d say Leaellynasaura. I’ll tag it- we’ll need to put this one and any more into a Wyvern Base habitat.”

Kitten nodded and they continued to travel to the station. Below them, something awakened. It listened to them talk, muffled through the heavy blankets of snow. It selected a victim and began the hunt, stalking the four from below, preparing an attack when-

“Stay out of the snow!” cried a voice.

“What?” Maizie inquired. “Why? It’s just snow- I know you- you’re Milly.”

“And you must be the new researchers! Come, quickly!”

With no choice, they ran to Milly, who was standing on top of the research station’s roof. The creature beneath stalked, but soon, the muffled footsteps faded and the stalker lost interest.

Inside, the four were served hot chocolate by a man named Martin. It was nice, hot, quite warm, as opposed to the cold environment. It oozed with the soft delights of liquid joy.

“So you’re the new researchers?” he asked, shaking with worry. “You’ve come at a bad time- we all need to leave!”

“What exactly happened?” Jack inquired. “We heard one researcher died. What’s with the no standing on snow thing?”

“We think whatever took or killed Kellen hunts from underneath the snow,” the one called Toby explained, “I was with her when she disappeared!”

“A bear?” Maizie offered.

“T-there were no bear tracks,” Milly stammered, “just gone.”

“And how do you know it’s under the snow?” Kitten queried.

“I ran a scan on the ground, and we found that the snow had been disturbed,” Martin informed, “we’re all staying here until we find out what it is. We tried to get a helicopter out of here, but there were none for today.”

“Oh no…” Kitten began, then turning to whisper to Stacy, “we may have caused these people to meet their end.”

“Either way,” Stacy whispered back, “we have no choice now.”

“So, did it try to get in here?” Jack asked.

“It did, follow me,” Martin answered.

The four followed Martin to another room, which had a large window. There were no cameras anywhere in the station, due to a budget. The window was scratched, two long streaking cracks, which were spider webbing along the lines.

“What the hell could’ve done this…” Kitten muttered.

“No animal should be able to do that,” Martin further explained, “it’s very tough glass. Bears couldn’t even damage it.”

“Peculiar,” Stacy noted.

In the next nine hours, nothing happened. But that’s when the tapping began. There were small, patterned taps coming from the area where the cracks were.

“That tapping! Could it be?” one named Marcus guessed.

“It must be!” Milly returned.

Our four followed the researchers into the room, where they saw a white something dash away. On the window was another slash, making it four lines in total.

Behind them, they heard knocking on the door.

“Don’t open it!” they heard Andrew yell.

“I need to!” Toby responded. “It could be Kellen!”

The door opened and closed. Toby was outside on his own.

Then there was only a single scream. And then there was silence. 

An hour passed without anything. Everyone but the DAE agents were asleep, scared. The agents were in the kitchen, drinking tea, and hot chocolate.

“What do you think it is?” Maizie inquired.

“No idea,” Kitten replied.

“Two large claws, where have I seen that before,” Stacy mumbled, pondering the data. “Must be a dinosaur…”

“What if we try to lure it out?” Jack suggested. “Leave out food or something?”

“No, it’d react to animals or us stepping on the snow.”

Tap, tap tap…

“It’s back!” Maizie shrieked.

“Wait, something’s different,” Kitten realized, “the taps sound… off.”

“No, there are two taps,” Stacy realized, “communication. Math.”

And then something slammed itself into the door, giving it a loud thud. Then there were more thuds.

“We need to wake up those researchers!” Jack remembered.

Kitten ran to wake up the researchers. The others prepared their TSC pistols.

CRASH!

The door flew inwards, crashing into a desk and computer. The alarm rang a loud klaxon. From the kitchen and dining room, the four heard something growl at the alarm. 

The researchers awoke, bursting out of their rooms and going into a hall. They saw Kitten with a pistol, pointing it at the door. The door was being banged against as if a madman was trying to enter.

“Do you guys have any path out of here?!” Kitten demanded, sweat beading in fear.“Or a path to the other station?!”

“We can hide in an outpost along the way!” Milly responded. “But we need to go!”

Milly, Kitten, and the researchers headed out in the snow just as the door broke, flying across the hall.

Meanwhile, the three others ducked behind a cooking table, just as their doors broke. Something sniffed in the air and snarled.

Step.

Step.

Step.

A growl.

Whatever it was, the creature approached the trio’s table. With a clawed hand, it scratched the table. The three crept around to another table, hiding from their unknown attacker. 

A snarl.

“We need to run,” whispered Maizie.

“Okay, I’ll try to shoot it,” replied Stacy.

Stacy leaped up and fired at their attacker. Then, all three ran out of the room and out of the building.

Unfortunately, the darts did not hit the creature, but hit some pans, causing the creature to be distracted.

“Did you see it?!” Jack gasped. “I didn’t!”

“No,” Stacy informed, “but we need to run!”

“Jack! Stacy! Maizie!” Kitten yelled, “Quick! Follow us, we’re running to a safer area!”

Behind them, a door burst open. The four turned back, but they saw nothing.

Everyone started running for their life. They ran on the snow, alerting the creatures, who were beneath. A scream was heard as Marcus the researcher was seen being swallowed up by the snow.

Now, the outpost was seen just near them. But not all of them would make it. Left and right, humans disappeared into the white blanket of snow, never to be seen again. Milly opened the outpost door and they walked in.

“No!”

Milly screamed as she disappeared into the deadly snow. 

For the rest of them, they were safe. The creatures wouldn’t break through the stronger metal doors as easily as before. They still tried, but after four thuds, the door stopped rattling.

“What the hell?!” a researcher screeched. “Did any of you see that?!”

“Maizie, see if you have a way to contact Wyvern Base. And no,” Stacy replied, “though we do need to tell you something.”

While Stacy told the researchers all about the DCU, Xavier, Dan, and Sukie were at a conference meeting.

“Presenting DAE representative Vivan Zhu of the Asian Division,” a speaker announced.

“Presenting DAE representative Austin Bennet,” another announced.

“We’re up next,” Xavier whispered. “I’m Xavier Krassant of the American Division.”

“Next is Xavier Krassant of the American Division.”

Dan was next, and an announcer announced, “Dan, Time Displacement project leader.”

Sukie gave one announcer a piece of paper.

“Sukie Everlie, head researcher of geologic time shift.”

“Ash Bayin, of the India-Africa Division.”

Soon, all of them took seats in the theater-like room. Dan went up to the front, where as a leader, he would present Sukie’s findings and discuss the mysterious organization Scorpion. From a hidden room, Milo, leader of Wyvern Base, watched.

“As you know, I am Daniel Quall, the agent assigned to lead this investigation on time portals,” he began, “now, our leading expert Sukie Everlie has given us a lot of information, along with a strange artifact we believe may be from the future. All of you have been chosen due to your ideas and methods.”

“Excuse me,” somebody started, “why do we keep all this hidden? It would be a lot easier to just let the public know.”

“You see, time travel may have consequences,” the agent explained, “imagine a hundred, no thousands of people wanting to use time travel to save a loved one. It would be chaos, and the world could be changed drastically.”

“I see.”

“Now, let us continue. This device, which seems to be some sort of future tablet, has given us knowledge of the portals and some future animals. There are log entries and video files of many creatures, both past, and future. The author of these entries refers to him or herself as Glass,” Dan paused to drink, then continued. “What’s peculiar is that some of these entries seem to reference us, the DAE. In Tibet, Agent Vivian Zhu and her team traveled to the past and found evidence of human survival, as well as a ruined TSC pistol. As far as we know, only the DAE has TSC guns.”

“So you’re saying this has something to do with us?”

“Precisely, and the fact that portals have opened in Asia is unsettling indeed. This can only mean that this Scorpion has created man-made time portals there as well.”

“This Scorpion, do we have any leads on them?”

“Unfortunately not,” Dan clarified, “not even our spies know who the leader is or all their bases. However, we know something of them- something we are calling the Scorpion Train. This device is a train that they have engineered to run on tachyon energy. It isn’t limited to train tracks, and it has been spotted in Colorado.”

“What if we weaponized these portals?” someone asked.

“We may be able to do that. In fact, we have a team of researchers working on that right now.”

Xavier’s phone buzzed. He checked it and found that it was Maizie. Realizing that something must’ve happened, he excused himself from the room to answer it.

“Maizie? It isn’t pickup time yet.”

“We need help! Please!”

“What happened?!”

“T-these things, we don’t know what they are!”

“What do you need?”

“Help! T-they’re gonna come through!”

“Maizie, where are you?!”

“The outpost in the middle of the way to Station Beta!”

“Stay there, I’ll get a team immediately!” 

Xavier hung up the phone and instantly dialed a Canadian outpost belonging to the DAE. Within minutes, he was informed that a helicopter would be in the air.

“So?” Jack began, “What did Xavier say?”  
“A team is coming to get us,” Maizie responded, sighing in relief.

But as if to prove Maizie wrong, whatever it was out there, it began to slam into the outpost once more, shaking the building in anger. The two creatures were trying to get in, but for now, the door was holding.

“There’s got to be a way to scare them off or something,” Kitten muttered.

“We haven’t even seen what they are,” Stacy replied.

“Wait, this is a tower- I’ll be on the roof!”

Kitten rushed to the roof, almost hitting two researchers resting on the stairs. Kitten opened the roof door, and illuminated by a full moon, he looked down at the creatures. Kitten scanned them and gasped.

“Oh my god…”

Dinosaurs. Specifically, theropods. But not like any the world had seen before. According to the scanner, they were theropods, but not a group that had been discovered. 

They had long, slender bodies, with feathers white as the snow. Long arms and very long fingers that curved backward. The claws seemed like large shovels, and they were, as the dinosaurs used them to get into the snow. But something was strange- the dinosaurs were sweating- no, excreting some liquid from quills all over their bodies. Kitten watched as drops of the liquid touched the snow. The snow seemed to bunch up together and tighten. 

The liquid was used to create their homes. The creatures lived deep under the snow, and the liquid hollowed out the snow, giving them homemade caves.

Their legs and feet were long, similar to their upper appendages. Kitten watched one of the two kick back snow quickly in anger. One jumped high and kicked the door, another use for the strong legs.

Unfortunately, Kitten couldn’t shoot down the creatures from his angle, afraid of alerting them.

“So?” Jack asked, fear in his eyes. “What are they?”

“Dinosaurs,” Kitten began, an amazed look on his face. Kitten proceeded to explain.

“Somethings wrong!” a researcher shouted. “It’s too quiet!”

Jack cracked the door open but did not see any of the newly discovered theropods. Instead, he saw one of those large air pipes snapped in two.

“Damn it! The basement!” a researcher realized.

Down in the basement, someone screamed as they saw the two creatures emerged from the vents, throwing the heat fan across the room. Like octopi, the creatures were slender bodies able to squish themselves even further.

Unable to save the researchers, Stacy just shut the basement door, but before it could click shut, one of the theropods threw itself at it, sending Stacy to the floor, a wooden door in her hand.

The creature snarled and stepped towards the stunned Stacy when-

-A burst of flame suddenly lit the creature’s snow-white feathers on fire. The creature writhed in agony as it fell to the floor, rolling on the flames and coincidentally putting out the flames.

The other dinosaur emerged and immediately knocked out the makeshift flamethrower from Maizie’s hand, learning from the other’s mistake. The partly burnt one rose up, now madder than ever. Their two long claws clicked together as they moved.

Everyone ran outside. That is, everyone but the professionally trained Kitten, who stayed behind to protect the injured Stacy. One of the creatures, the one that hadn’t been burned raced for the exit, but a few TSC shots later, the creature fell to the ground.

The burnt one growled and charged.

Kitten sidestepped and fired three more times, but only hitting once. He aimed and fired, but got an empty click.

“Fine, come and get it,” Kitten declared, drawing not one electroshock baton, but two.

The dinosaur jumped and kicked, but our Kitten jumped to the side, and the animal landed on the floor. Kitten took the chance and struck once at the creature, who roared in pain. The theropod slashed at Kitten who deflected it with one baton.

The creature turned to attack once more, but Kitten struck the creature’s head as it turned, blinding it temporarily.

Making good use of the distraction, Kitten dropped to the floor and slid to Stacy. He took her TSC pistol but-

-a slash came upon Kitten’s face, sending him to the side, and the gun and a baton, across the room. The snarling monster approached Kitten and-

-a baton hit the creature from behind. In surprise and pain, the beast fell to the floor, revealing Stacy.

“I hate dinosaurs,” she mumbled.

As the dinosaur began to get up, Stacy found her pistol, aiming it carefully at the dinosaur.

Two silenced shots later, the creature was down.

The two walked outside and looked up. Above, they saw a certain helicopter.

Hours later, Stacy, Kitten, Jack, and Maizie were back on the plane, along with the theropods and Leaellynasaurua. Due to the tracker, Stacy had injected on the Leaellynasaura, they had managed to locate seven more of them. The dicoverence of the theropods would have been big news, but sadly, everything had to be kept hidden. Stacy decided to call them Pagodromos nivea, meaning the ice and the subterranean tunnels of snow.

But nobody realized that the liquid excreted by the dinosaurs hardened snow to create caves.

Below the blankets of snow, a fox explored a strange cave. A dinosaur stalked it with hungry eyes.

Keep Calm and Blow Bubbles  
Paris burst through the already opened door, then waved a small pistol around, scared. Behind her, three officers appeared, waving pistols around in anticipation.

Jessica Io’s house was silent. And silence meant empty.

“Jessica Io’s house…” the police captain pondered, waving her gun to check the corners of the central hall. “How the hell did we forget to check this place?!”

“Don’t question that,” Paris rebutted. “Let’s focus on the present.”

“Right,” the captain agreed, “but how did your friend know where to find this place?!”

“Too long to explain,” Paris shot, opening the kitchen door and bursting in. Nothing, just silence. 

However, the kitchen was messed up, as if a large animal had been fighting with something. Plates were smashed all across the floor, and papers were strewn about like lights on a christmas tree. The kitchen table was in pieces, and one particularly large piece had a footprint, a large circle in the center, and five curving triangles surrounding it.

“What did this?!” the police captain gasped, having never seen a more brutal and chaotic scene.

“Something not human,” Paris replied, noticing an important detail. Like a river cutting through mountains, there were splatters of blood. “Because, humans don’t bleed blue.”

Indeed, across the room were streaks of blue blood, intermixed with occasional streaks of blood red. Neither Caleb Azalea nor whatever had been Jessica Io could be seen.

“Look,” a police officer notified, pointing at a wall, “bullet holes.”

“Did your friend have a gun?” the captain inquired.

“No, he left his gun behind at the prison,” Paris replied, pondering the scene. “Someone else was here.”

“But who?”

“No idea, but tell your men to sweep the house.”

Just as the captain said the order to sweep the house, a voice outside yelled. Accompanied by the scream were several gunshots.

Paris and the captain nodded to each other and sprinted outside, finding a young officer hold up a gun to an unconscious man lying on the floor.

The man was obviously injured, and his uniform was drenched in blood. But the uniform was not from an officer’s uniform, but rather, a military one. What appeared to be sickled claw marks were crossed all over the victim, as well as circular marks that had the most blood leaking out.

“Officer Vuail,” the captain began, addressing the man pointing a gun at the injured man, “what happened?”

“I- you won’t believe me!” Officer Vuail defended. 

“Well, I will,” Paris offered, “I’ll believe.”

“I’ll believe anything right now,” the captain mentioned.

“Okay,” Officer Vuail started, “there was this thing- I can’t really explain- it- it just appeared out of nowhere!”

“What thing?” Paris questioned, now with a pen and notebook in hand. As she did, she whispered to the captain to fetch some medics. “Was it Jessica Io?”

“How- it was! It was Jessica Io, now that I think about it- except, it wasn’t. It was more of something escaping out of it!”

“What thing? What did it look like?”

“Her- her spine had been ripped in half and this- this thing was coming out! It was dark limbs just stretched out! Just trailing behind everywhere- there were like six or seven limbs or something with too many joints and one of them- one of them…”

“One of what?” Paris pressured.

“These- the limbs had these claws on them! T-they were all turny and stuff and one of the limbs were gripping this man and- you won’t even believe what happened next!”

“I will,” Paris assured, writing down the new information.

“Okay,” Officer Vuail mumbled. “This- this head came out- a-and the body- just skinny and black and colorless and- I can’t even explain anything. But the head just… it was…”

“What was it?”

“It had so many teeth and… it looked like one of those carnivorous plants, y’know, the Venus one or something. It- it just growled and me and- and I screamed and-”

“You shot the thing and this.”

“Y-yes. I know you won’t believe me. It- it was just unbelievable!”

“Okay, so if this thing, this Venus monster escaped from Jessica’s body… then where is her body now? It can’t have just disappeared!”

“No- you don’t understand! It- the skin was like a part of it!”

“Like it was molting the skin off?”

“Yes- But how did you know that?! It- it was like one of those puppet balloons- but with no air inside! Just slack on the floor.”

“A lucky guess,” Paris answered, though clearly lying. “Continue.”

“The- the skin fell off and the creature- it- it ate it!”

“Describe this… cannibalism.”

“When it was running away from me- it- it took the skin and just ate it as he hopped over the fence! Then it jumped onto the roof and I lost track of it!”

“Dismissed, officer,” the captain ordered. The woman turned to Paris, with an accused look in her eyes. “You aren’t actually believing the officer’s story, right? Because it can’t happen. Anyways, that unconscious guy’s in the hospital in surgery now.”

“I won’t believe him,” Paris lied, knowing full well the story was true. “But we don’t have a clue where Azalea, my friend went. I don’t believe there was enough time for someone to kill and hide him.”

“I agree, but I believe that army man may have something to do with this.”

“True- how long until we can start asking questions?”

“Maybe three hours. The wounds weren’t that bad.”

Three agonizing hours later, Paris and the police captain were at the hospital. At the door, three officers guarded, making sure nobody could interfere with the investigation.

Behind the two investigators was a table, where all the army man’s items lay, untouched and bagged. 

“Hello there,” Paris greeted, “welcome back to life.”

“Who are you?! What happened?!” the man yelled.

“Calm down,” the police captain assured, “you’re in the hospital. You are also a suspect to a murder.”

“What?! Never mind, where’s my stuff?!”

“There,” Paris told, pointing at the table with the items.

“Good,” the man said, struggling against the cuffs that tied him to the bed. “Now get me out of here!”

“Not so fast,” the captain rebutted. “We will be getting some answers first.”

“No, no! You wouldn’t understand why we were there anyways.”

“We?” Paris pointed out. “Who’s we?”

“My team,” the man explained. “I’m only authorized to tell you that… we were there to collect… an item.”

Paris walked over to the table and found an object she had been keeping an eye on. It was a small pentagonal pin blue in color, with several words on it.

“An item?!” Paris growled, clearly mad as she examined the pin. “Caleb Azalea was my friend! This was his pin- it says ‘Keep Calm and Blow Bubbles’! Why do you have this!”

“I found it,” the man replied. “Finder keepers.”

“Where!” Paris interrogated, fuming at the seams.

“When I knocked that one guy out. Weird stuff, but finders keepers.”

Paris rubbed her eyes and walked back to the table to find any more items that belonged to Azalea.

Meanwhile, the police captain took the lead. “How are you so calm? You know we’re keeping you here for at least suspicious circumstances?”

“Oh, I don’t care,” the man snarled, “because only Lakise is important.”

“Lakise?” Paris asked, realizing something in her head. “Where have I heard that before?”

“Why did you tell us that?”

“You’ll find it anyway- just check my stuff. A flashdrive is there that contains my mission information.”

True to his word, inside the pockets of the army uniform was a single yellow thumbdrive. The device had a label that read ‘Fort Lakise RM-33’. Paris couldn’t understand, but she had a feeling about this fort.

Paris pulled out a laptop from a bag she had brought. Paris plugged in the thumb drive, and as the man said, there was a single document that contained the information of the ‘mission’.

“Collect the objects,” Paris read out loud. “Bring them to Fort Lakise. -Project SP.”

“Project SP, what’s that?” the captain questioned.

“No idea- I’m just a soldier.”

“Where is… Fort Lakise?” Paris asked.

“That, I really can’t tell-”

“It’s here in Kintain, isn’t it?” Paris cut in, smiling a devious smile. As she said the words, the color began to drain from the man’s face. “Everything so far has happened here in Kintain, except the Fairchild case, which I can’t understand. Now, tell me where it is!”

“I… I can’t. Or, I won’t. I don’t break under any circumstances.”

“I think I know where Fort Lakise is,” the police captain offered. “Let’s just say some of the blueprints of this hospital don’t add up.”

“Can you prove that?” Paris inquired. “And how do you know?”

“Let’s just say… some people want Lakise to be revealed.”

With that, the police captain set a small notepad onto the table where Paris was and strolled out the exit. Too confused to move, the captain disappeared into the crowd before Paris could understand what had just transpired.

“Hey!” Paris called, drawing attention from onlookers as she ran out. “Where are you?! What’s this supposed to mean?!”

No response.

Paris returned to the army man’s room, gave the patient an angry look, and opened the notepad. 

It wasn’t notes.

A map. It was a map of a hidden base that was underneath the very hospital, enterable by pressing a specific code on the elevator buttons.

And in that very underground fort far below the hospital, Azalea awoke.

It was a room, all white around. Every single wall was a soft white, not bright, but… comforting. One such wall had the way out, a door. 

Azalea was sitting on a bed, a soft purple one. Then, he realized he was wearing a hospital gown, rather than his regular clothes. He gazed, and he found a cabinet, which he opened. Inside, were his clothes.

Missing, was his favourite pin.

He thought nothing of it. He had many other pins, and could recreate his favourite one later. First, he needed to escape the mysterious room.

“Hello?!” he called.

No answer was given.

With no options left, Azalea changed into his clothes, then stepped towards the white door at the other end of the room. 

He gripped the door’s spherical handle, and turned.

It opened. Revealed, was a busy hallway. A crowd was there, all wearing military uniforms, like an army of camouflage striped trees. It was an amazing sight, but Azalea didn’t waste any time. 

He noted that there seemed to be many doctors, as quite a number of people wore white lab coats. Sneaking a peak from his location, he saw a paper describing an unknown organism that had the ability to change color. He was confused but-

“Oh, you’re finally awake,” a voice interjected, just before he could read any more.

“Huh?” Azalea mumbled, turning to face the voice.

“You’re awake,” a doctor repeated. “My name is Doctor Julian Jiao, but you can call me JJ. How do you like our facility? Sorry about what we had to do to get you here. It was necessary, but that thing… we weren’t expecting to find you and that thing at the same time.”

“I… what? Where am I?”

“Oh, no worries,” Doctor Jiao assured. “Caleb Azalea, we’ve been looking for you for quite a while now.”

“Why?”

“No matter. Just follow me,” Jiao deflected, “and just as you say- Keep calm, and blow bubbles.”

Tylosaur  
The water began to swirl, forming a vortex. Deep in the ocean, a softly glowing sucked the water, drawing the whirlpool to full power.

The ocean began to drain through the time portal, gallons of water flowing through. Along with the water, a creature was sucked in, one large and powerful. 

Ten meters long, Tylosaurus was truly a force to be reckoned with. A fast predator, sleek, and unstoppable.

But the force of the portal still drew it in, and the creature was instantly transported into the modern day.

Towering over the city of New Archangel was a large dam that provided much of the energy used in the city. But this was not to be held for long, as the salt water of the prehistoric oceans began to add to the fresh.

The sudden, quick, increase of water began to strain on the dam walls, creating ever the slightest crack. Already, the security towers managing the dam were already picking up the weakness in the foundations.

With a final gush of new water, the dam cracked, booming loudly above the city. Heads turned to all look at the crumbling dam.

With a final boom, a wall of water gushed through, and the walls crumbled, being crushed over water, reducing them to dust.

The towers weren’t lucky, and they too, fell, and the magnificent tower of water was brought down upon them.

The sight was one to behold. It was as if the towers were simply crushed by a blanket of solid water, as if a child had stepped on a sand castle.

Humans frantically ran to cover as the wall of water began to make its way down from the mountain towering over New Archangel, rushing to flood the city. 

And with the blanket of water that began to flood the city, the merciless Tylosaur began to hunt, hungry, and confused at its new surroundings. Up ahead, it saw a perfect victim, trying to swim against the tide of water, trying to reach a house.

The man never made it. A simple swish of a tail, and the fearsome Tylosaur snapped, taking the man head-first, then chomping down, severing the legs. And that, was that.

Six hours later, Xavier Krassant got a call. “Ah, yes, Director Reid, what can my team, the DCU do for you?”

There was only four words spoken in a monotone voice: “New Archangel, come alone.” 

“Director? What?”

“There’s a highly classified case at New Archangel- check your personal mission file. Go to those coordinates alone,” the voice, deep and robotic ordered. “One of your time portals opened up six hours ago, breaking a dam. Something came through.”

“Got it.” Xavier clicked off his phone.

Xavier stood up, opened his office door, and walked out. When confronted by a curious Jack where he was going, he told them it was to pick up some food at the Wyvern Base Food Court.

But instead, Xavier made his way into another plane.

“Computer!” he shouted, summoning the plane to life. Lights activated, buttons twirled, and pristine drinks appeared in the kitchen area of the small plane.

“Yes, passenger?”

“I am Xavier Krassant,” he began, an authoritative tone making sure the machine would understand. “Take me to the Coded City of New Archangel.”

“Your passcode?”

“XK-90253.”

With that, the plane roared to life, and took off.

The windows of the plane shut, to prevent Xavier from knowing where in the world was the city of New Archangel. The cockpit was inaccessible, closed off by blast doors. Navigation wouldn’t be accessible from the medical bay console or the kitchen.

After an unknown amount of boring hours, Xavier finally felt the plane touchdown, and the windows pop open. Outside, Xavier saw that he had landed on a large building.

The doors opened, and the computer ordered him to leave. 

Xavier did so, and now he could see the disaster the flood had caused. Sticks, stones, dust, and cars were strewn in the streets around. People were looking for loved ones and items, water still waist high in the aftermath.

“Agent Krassant of the so-called DCU,” a soft, young voice greeted. “Your reputation precedes you. We at the U-D-A call you the Dinosaur Hunter.”

“Marie-Eliza Reid,” Xavier replied, turning to look at the agent, who was clad in a gray coat that seemed to cover her entire body. Her hands were not visible, hidden by the draping sleeves. Triangular glasses shielded her eyes from the sun, and most strangely of all, a jet-black umbrella shielded her from the light. “What can I do for you?”

“Due to the nature of the… infestation my team was dealing with, we were hesitant to report the event.”

“Well?”

“A time portal opened, bringing in lots of water. It broke the dam, but something else came through- something we aren’t prepared to deal with.”

“Ah, so it’s what my team usually deals with. Prehistoric animals.”

“Precisely,” Reid answered. As the agent began her new sentence, she pulled out several pictures of a chewed off leg, and a mass of regurgitated flesh. “This was one of my best agents.”

“I’ll need my paleo-”

“Only you. But, I’ll permit you to call your friends at the DCU, and send these… photographs. Anyways, if it’s still alive, it will be in the ocean. Catch it- I need it alive.”

“I’ll need a-”

“Boat? I’ve got a small submarine prepared. Now, if you do your job, my team won’t bother you. Me and my team have an infestation to deal with.”

And with that, Agent Reid walked away, down the stairs.

“Wait!” Xavier called, running down the stairs to ask where they couldn’t just let the animal go instead of catching it.

Xavier sighed.

Still, Xavier carried on, quickly finding the submarine at the docks. It was small, and was designed to be manned by two or three people. Sadly, Xavier would have to deal with his loneliness.

The submarine was indeed small, and was just a transparent sphere with the engines sticking out to the side like wings. 

He entered the vehicle, took a seat at the small sphere that was the cockpit. The main console has plenty of buttons, ranging from speed settings to stun nets.

Xavier decided to pilot the submarine underwater. Next, he activated the radar, and set it to detect traces of tachyon particles.

As he drove, Xavier forwarded the images to Stacy, who called him as soon as she had gotten them. “Ah, Doctor Sykes,” Xavier greeted.

“Xavier, what are you doing?!”

“Classified, now, do you know what sort of sea animal could have done that?”

“No, but something large, at least eight meters! Now, would you mind telling me what you’re doing with this information?!”

“Classified,” Xavier replied, clicking the radar to detect animals larger than eight meters. “I’ll tell you more in a while. Agent Krassant out.”

“Wha-”

Almost immediately after Xavier had set the radar, a large blip notified him that an animal was nearby around the size of his projections.

The submarine headed towards the animal, who swam far below.

But at last, Xavier could see the Tylosaur, dark blue, and spotted with white swimming away.

“There you are,” he muttered, snapping a quick photograph to send Stacy.

As if the animal knew that it was caught, it turned, and began to swim towards Xavier’s submarine, rushing.

Xavier found a blue button that said ‘capture-stun nets’, and fired. Dual cylinders shot out of hidden compartments.

Unfortunately, one missed, and the other only managed to hit the tail, transforming into a giant net that caught the tail within. But the Tylosaur seemed to snarl, turn away from the submarine, and shake off the net.

As the Tylosaur turned, the creature’s powerful tail slammed into Xavier’s submarine, creating a large, noticeable crack on the outer glass layer.

“A Tylosaur?!” Stacy replied, texting Xavier her input.

“How do I catch it?” Xavier replied.

“No idea.”

Left with no choice, Xavier proceeded to chase after the Tylosaur.

The Tylosaur turned, suddenly realizing it was being chased, and swam over the submarine.

“Oh no…”

With a deafening crack, the Tylosaur chomped on the engine to the right of Xavier. It sputtered in defiance, sending waves discordantly. 

Xavier panicked, pressing the targeting button, causing another to launch, swirling towards the Tylosaur. This time, it’s body was hit, and the stun began to take effect.

But before Xavier could press the button once more, he heard the slight click of a gun right behind him.

Xavier turned, whipped out his gun and aimed at a dark silhouette of a figure, dressed in a standard police uniform and aiming a gun at him. “What the hell?! Get off my plane- Who are you?!”

“I could ask you the same,” the policeman returned. “This is a government submarine! Who are you, and why have you put guns on it?!”

“I am the government- well, sort of!”

“Yeah, I’ll need to see your credentials.”

“Alright, I’ll pull out my ID badge,” Xavier lied, knowing full well he had no credentials. He reached into his suit, hand looking for his imaginary badge.

“Hold up!”

“What am I gonna do? Pull out another gun?”

“Oh, right. I see my error.”

That was exactly what Xavier pulled out, another gun.

It was fast and quick, and before the policeman could shoot, Xavier fired, and a grouping of TSC needles appeared on the man’s chest. The police officer fell to the ground with a thud.

“Ugh, people these days.”

Xavier walked over to the fallen body, picked up the officer’s gun, and sighed in annoyance. But something was wrong with the officer, because he did not have an officer’s badge. Instead, there was an insignia of a blue-yellow Asian dragon. Next to the badge was a phone, which Xavier opened.

Inside, he saw a passcode, but there was something odd. When he swiped right, he found a log of events all encoded. Along with the codes were photographs of prehistoric animals, the DCU plane, and the team members.

Someone had clearly been spying on the team.

In the confusion, the Tylosaur had managed to escape.

Xavier got the radar, and began to search for the Tylosaur.

Suddenly, out of the shadows, the jaws of the animal appeared and bit down upon the spherical glass, causing cracks outlining the jaw to occur.

“Perfect,” Xavier muttered, as he pressed the ‘fire’ button.

The net fired straight into the monster’s throat, stunning it and causing it to faint almost immediately.

Three shots labeled ‘drag’ were pressed, and small, painless hooks were hooked into the animal’s skin.

Xavier then proceeded to drag the creature away, back to the surface, where Marie-Eliza Reid would await the creature.

Six hours later, Xavier found himself back at Wyvern Base, presenting the phone and badge to Milo Krassant. During the submarine journey back, the unconscious man had mysteriously vanished without a trace. After Reid had extracted a chip from the Tylosaur, it was sent to Wyvern Base, where it now lived inside a large habitat.

The Krassant twins were seated across the habitat, looking through the glass at their newest addition to the menagerie. The lights reflected the water, casting a dim bue upon their bodies.

“A spy?” Milo wondered aloud. “Who could it be?”

“I don’t know.”

“On the other hand,” Milo started, swiping to some pictures of animals in cages, “these aren’t our bases. It isn’t Scorpion, because that badge wasn’t their insignia. Who could these people be? Some of these animals haven’t been encountered by us at all.”

“Indeed, something very strange is going on. Agent Reid didn’t recognize the insignia either.”

Far away from Wyvern Base, a chandelier-like device clicked and whirred. Each ‘candle’ lit with multiple colors and faded. This device was above a table. A computer was on the table, and a seemingly infinite number of wires connected the ‘chandelier’ to the computer.

A man dressed as a police officer sat down at a table.

He began to type.

Your orders are complete. Now they know.

Ghost Stories  
“Seven years ago, in 2013, a mysterious thing happened in an old home. Now, the inhabitants of the home did not know of this thing, for they were on vacation for the month. What we do know, however, is that these inhabitants disappeared one week after returning.

The family complained of strange noises, and the fact that some expensive machinery was not working. But, that may be due to the age of the house, which was an old victorian mansion. Unknown to all but the original builders, the house had secret passageways and large, hidden rooms connected by this passage. There were underground passages that connected with other homes as well. 

In the following seven years, more and more people around the area went missing, especially those who had contact with the mansion. Taking no notice of these mysterious disappearances, a wealthy European entrepreneur decides to renovate this old house, planning to make a wonderful new home.”

DAE Science Committee  
“Steve, I wonder who’d want to buy this creepy old house,” commented an agent working for a renovation company. Her name was Maggie Jefferson, one of the two selected to investigate the house.

“Jefferson, let’s not bother about that,” Steve replied, “money is money.”

“Some man named Lakise.”

“I heard people went missing in this neighborhood,” the other replied, “not surprising too, judging that none of those people were willing to talk about this house.”

The two entered the house and waved their flashlights around. What was once a luxurious home, was now dusty, large spider webs everywhere. Steve coughed.

“Let’s see if I can get the lights working,” Steve offered.

“Nah, we’ll just use daylight,” the other responded, grabbing a fire pit poker to draw open the curtains.

The sunlight pierced the dusty old house, revealing large spiders. As the sun shone, the spiders evacuated their webs. One in particular, was an exceptionally big tarantula.

“Agh! Spiders!” Steve groaned.

As if to highlight his words, a large spider jumped from the ceiling onto his back. It was extremely large, covering his entire body. However, such creatures are not dangerous, and the arachnid crawled away in fear. Steve threw a rusty old knife at the spider as it ran.

“Woah! Careful with the knife!”

“Sorry, i-it was just so big…”

“That is true, I’ve never heard of a spider that size.”

Maggie pointed her light towards the ceiling, where the two saw more of the strange large spiders scurry away. There were also strange white orbs dangling from the ceiling.

“What is that?” Maggie pondered.

“No idea- probably some dust collections or something,” said Steve who poked it with a stick. It exploded into white dust, and the two coughed.

“Let’s split up- I’ll take this floor, and, Maggie, you’ll take the second.”

“Agreed.”

The two of them split, each armed with a flashlight. The two activated a body camera and split up.

Steve proceeded, looking around in every room. The house would be amazing once the redecoration was complete. However, the lights didn’t seem to work right, so he decided to check out the fuses.

The fuses were relatively safe, and within minutes, the house was lit with a soft yellow glow. It was like candlelight, but it was just lightbulbs. Somehow, it just made the house creepier. With the lights on-

“Aagh!” Steve screamed.

“What happened?” Maggie replied, asking through a radio.

“Just some skulls- some mice or something. It’s near this fireplace I found.”

“Okay.”

Steve cleared the skulls out of the way and began to inspect when he heard a piercing scream. It sounded almost human, but not quite.

“Maggie, you okay?”

“Good as gold. Why?”

“I just heard a scream. Sounded more like a threat than a scream, but I swear, I heard one.”

“Maybe it’s the wind. That’s how old houses work, right?” 

“Sure, sure. I’ll check it out to see if a window’s open.”

Steve followed where the noise came from, and to his horror- it was an opened window. To him, it was probably where the dust came from. Looking outside, he gazed at the forest where a certain animal took his interest.

It appeared to be some sort of goat, judging by its body. But then there was the head, which was unlike any goat he has ever seen. It was just a large, singular horn, and by large, it covered its head. Steve managed to snap a quick photograph before the ‘goat’ bounded off in the distance. 

Somewhere else, someone also snapped a photo. Someone inside a van that had the letters S, C, O, R, P, I, O, and N arranged to spell Nopirocs.

Steve stepped backwards, but suddenly, he felt something bite him and there wasn’t any floor- and he was somewhere else, somewhere that did not in the house. He tried to speak, but found that he appeared to be gagged by a silky substance. He managed to look around and saw that he was laying on layers upon layers of the same substance.

Above, he saw spiders. A lot of damned spiders.

But now, we return to Wyvern Base, where our heroes, well, just Jack and Maizie, were enjoying themselves. Specifically, they were eating food at the cafeteria. To their surprise there was no chef, and instead, food was created by synthesizers, artificial intelligence, and complicated machinery.

“T-this is just amazing!” the young Maizie bubbled.

“I know,” Jack responded, “I’ve never tasted such wonderful food. Oh, and Maizie, eat your vegetables.” 

“What? Really?”

“Yes.”

Xavier stopped by and informed them that the plane would lift off in about thirty minutes. There was an optional mission, and he gave the two some time to think about coming.

“Hi Jack, Maizie,” Kitten chimed, “where’s the rest of you guys?”

“Leo is… I don’t know. I think he said something about the weapons testing room,” Maizie answered.

“Cool.”

“Stacy’s out on a date with someone,” Jack continued.

“Huh. Interesting, did Xavier already come by here? I have to tell the others.”

“He did.”

“Now just to find Sukie…”

“Again, no idea,” Maizie replied, “maybe she’s with Stacy.”

After getting lost quite a few times, Kitten managed to find Leo and inform him of the optional mission. Last, he couldn’t find Stacy or Sukie, and left a voicemail for the both of them.

Thirty minutes later, almost nobody showed up on the plane. The soldiers and agents were out on the base enjoying the time off until the next portal.

Nobody showed, that is, but Kitten, Daena, Stacy, and Xavier.

“Aaaand the others don’t even bother to show up,” Kitten pouted, “or ask about the mission.”

“I’m not sure I even want to go,” Stacy commented. “I’m not that close with you guys anyway.”

“Think of this mission as a bonding moment,” Xavier optimistically said, “we probably won’t encounter anything.”

“That’s… reassuring,” Stacy hesitated, “what are we doing?”

“Ghost hunting,” Xavier stated.

“What?!” Daena exclaimed. “The DAE science committee has no proof in ghosts. Only the JPIS folks deal with that.”

“Julian Page Investigative Service has vampires working for it, remember that.”

“What?!” exclaimed Stacy, “Vampires are real?!”

“J-just watch the Vibrant News Clip.”

On the larger TV screen, someone who looked like Maxwell Stevenson appeared.

“Wait, I thought that guy was from Knife’s Edge!” Kitten pointed out.

“Now you see,” Xavier started, “Maxwell Stevenson covers a broad majority of the southern states and his assigned town, Knife’s Edge. This is Maxwelle Stevenson, his twin brother.”

The Vibrant News logo flashed across the screen, along with a cheesy opening theme.

“Hello! I’m Maxwelle Stevenson, here with Vibrant News. Today, I’m in Kintain, Wyoming. As you know, Wyoming used to not exist, but now does. Here, two recon agents working for a renovation company have gone missing a couple days ago. This house, an old victorian era mansion is supposedly haunted. Across the years, many people have gone missing, always in this time of year. FBI agent Jackson Prescott has been investigating, now thinking it’s a generation of serial killers. Nearby, people have seen, and I quote, ‘Goat Unicorns’. Funny huh. Now for a word from our new sponsors.”

“Nopirocs Industries. Making the world better one meal at a time. We are killers- Cereal Killers! Nopirocs Industries will now be upgrading to hotels as well, with our amazing new buffet recipes. Remember, Nopirocs, making the world better one meal at a time.”

“In other news, people have been spotted entering into the ruins of the Angel Institute. This institute was-”

“Irrelevant,” Xavier cut in, “the institute is a joint force from the DAE and Hidden Cities.”

“What?” Stacy wondered. “Is it that vampire thing-”

“Nothing,” Xavier replied, “just now it’s ghost hunting time!”

Stacy and the others returned to their seats. Now, the plane began to rise. Ahem, technical difficulties. Where are the pilots? 

“Wait, where’s Justin and Lily?!” Daena remembered.

“Oh- ah. Shoot,” Xavier realized, “they were going shopping for the day. They’re buying us groceries and Halloween decorations.”

“Hello,” a voice appeared. The four turned to see a strange looking man and an equally strange woman.

“Who are you?!” Xavier demanded, a hand already on a pistol. “Actually, no, GET OUT OF MY PLANE!”

“N-no sir, we’re the replacement pilots,” the two spoke in unison.

“Oh, in that case, to Kintain!”

“Yes, sir.”

Now, the plane began to rise.

An hour later, the plane arrived in Kintain, or at least the airport closest to it. The town was quite a rainy place, and it was filled with water, but more importantly, legends. There were legends of Jackalopes, which had been revealed by a Cryptozoology Group named Global One to exist. And aliens- but nobody talks about the aliens.

“Ah, Kintain,” Kitten muttered, looking through the car mirror. “Rain, what a wonderful thing.”

“You’re one of those rain people, aren’t you?” Stacy accused.

“Yes, yes I am. Now, shut up. Let me have my rain.”

“So,” Xavier began, “since this is an unofficial relaxation mission, let’s get to know each other. Middle names? Mine is Moukha.”

“Isabel,” Daena told.

“Mine is Quincy,” Stacy chimed.

“Mine is redacted,” Kitten seriously denied.

“Really?”

“Fine, Elgar.”

“Quick question,” Stacy began, “why are all the things we’ve encountered dangerous? I mean, besides the fact that carnivores would be more interested.”

“Ah, you see,” Xavier started, “a lesser team handles lower priority cases. Next time, we will do a low priority case.”

And all across the ride, they had fun with each other. They talked about childhood, favourite classes, which revealed a lot of differences and more.

At last, they arrived at an old hotel. Surprisingly, the inside wasn’t old at all. It was the most expensive hotel in the town, so they had relative luxury.

They put their baggage away and met up at Xavier’s room.

“Alright, let’s discuss all this madness,” Xavier began, “I heard the locals call the woods the Unicorn Zone.”

“Wait, they actually believe those sightings? The goat unicorns?!” Daena exclaimed. “That’s silly!”

“Actually,” Kitten began, looking at something on his phone, “according to our database, tachyon energy was detected here in 2013! Why have you brought us here?!”

“Calm down,” Xavier assured, “look, Dan and the higher ups didn’t want to investigate this, so…”

“Fine… but you’re taking full responsibility for anything!”

“I think this is interesting. Why didn’t the DAE investigate it seven years ago?” Stacy wondered.

“We were busy with other things, specifically our reformation. I believe the remnants of the Angel Institute processed this but deemed it irrelevant.”

“What is this Angel?” 

“Our predecessor. Not much is known of our organization before the late nineteen-hundreds. Now, back to our mission.”

“Well, we’ve only got disappearances,” Daena began, “but, I have found some bodies.”

“Elaborate.”

“They were all found dead with a strange toxin in their system. Oh, and they seem to have been digested alive.”

“How interesting,” Stacy muttered, “I’m not sure what can do that. Maybe a mushroom?”

“No, this is not the X-Files. Or is it-”

“No! Well then,” Xavier began, “whenever you guys are ready, we’ll head out!”

“So, let’s do it then,” Kitten decided, “of course, we’ll need our weapons just in case.”

Ten minutes later, the four had arrived in the front doors of the house. Kitten knocked, to no response. The door was locked, and Daena kicked the door in. Behind them, a Nopirocs Industries van recorded everything.

“Wait, somethings not right,” Daena realized.

“What?” Xavier inquired.

“These doors should not be locked. Last I checked, this house is supposed to be unlocked for viewing.”

Nevertheless, they entered. They were smart enough to not split up and were now checking out the living room.

“Strange… not that much dust,” Stacy pointed out, “you’d think this old house would have more than this amount of dust.”

“What is that?” Xavier mumbled, shining his light at the ceiling. There were strange white orbs that looked like dust all rolled up into a ball. He took a few photos and sent them to the database to check out what it was.

Kitten stepped back to see the orbs better, when he felt himself step on something. The something popped loudly, releasing white dust into the roof.

“Ack- wh-agh!” Kitten managed.

The world seemed to shift, but soon returned to normal.

“What was that?!” Daena exclaimed, “I feel like I hit my head…”

“Same…”

“Wait, where’s the orb thingies?!” Stacy notified, yelling.

“What the…”

Outside, someone snapped a photograph.

But, let us now return to Wyvern Base, where we see Justin and Lily shopping for Halloween decorations. Wyvern Base had a large grocery shop where everything was free or was cheap. 

“So, what’s the plan for this year’s Halloween celebration?” Justin began, “Themes?”

“Dinosaurs and monsters, perhaps.”

“Then let’s find some artwork.”

“No, why don’t we plan the food cause that’s much more important!”

“Ooh, I agree.”

Suddenly, they got a call on their tablets. They seemed to be both from the same number, so only Lily answered it.

“Hello? Who is this?”

“Don’t move,” a disfigured voice ordered. 

“Why, who are you?” Justin demanded.

Suddenly, the two of them felt darts on their back. They looked at each other as vision faded and they became unconscious. It felt like eternity, but the two finally awoke in Wyvern Base’s medical room, each on a bed.

“Oh, you guys are awake,” a nurse mumbled.

“W-what happened?” Lily managed to say.

“Someone used a TSC dart on you guys. Whoever it was, they used a disturbance mask, because the cameras didn’t work. Oh, also, your tablets have been stolen.”

“What… a spy?” Justin asked.

“Perhaps. You’ll be getting a new tablet soon.”

Suddenly, the door of the medical room opened and revealed Leo dragging a body inside the room.

“Who is that?!” the doctor yelled. “Someone report this!”

“N-no!” Leo protested, “I saw this guy following me! He tried to shoot me, but I took him down!”

“Peculiar,” the doctor muttered, “the Time Displacement team…”

“Wait, what about Jack, Maizie, and Sukie?!” Justin realized. “They may be under attack!”

“Get a security team to assets,” the doctor began, then checking her tablet for some numbers, “assets 347, 348, and 134!”

“On it,” a guard concluded.

Jack was in the library, where he was reading up on the Aztecs. Sukie was with him, trying to find more material on the Aztecs. So far they had discovered some classified material, but nothing to do with the future artifact. There was, however, a story about how a meteor hit the Earth. When the meteor was combined with gold, something that looked like a portal would appear. Sukie was frustrated because the future tablet seemed to be out of battery. Maizie helped out as well, trying to understand the device.

“It was found in the Temple of Water,” Jack muttered, then suddenly having a bright look in his eyes. “Ah! It can’t have survived all those years with no battery! It might use water to recharge!”

Sukie nodded and was about to leave the room when something caught her eye.

Two figures, dressed in standard black and hands on pistols. Sukie used her tablet as a mirror and showed Jack.

“Quick, let’s hide in the shelves!”

The two walked to the shelves, pretending to look for books about any subject. They then saw the two stalkers follow, pistols now out. Even as they turned and twisted, they were always just behind them.

And suddenly, there were three of them, all cornering the two into a corner. There would be no escape when-

-darts appeared on each figure’s neck.

“Told ya I’m a good shot,” Leo joked, “now, let’s find out who these people are.”

An agent who accompanied him touched one of the unconscious figure’s face.

“Wait,” the agent began, something clearly amiss, “the face feels off.”

The agent pinched it and it bubbled. It wasn’t a face, rather a mask. The agent peeled off the mask, revealing the true face. The agent scanned the person, but it wasn’t anyone it knew. Then, the agent scanned the false face, and it revealed an agent who went missing on a Scorpion involved mission.

“What the hell is going on…” Jack muttered.

The agent ordered some other agents to reveal the others, then to take them away. Fifteen minutes later, an antitoxin was given and the three assailants along with Leo’s attacker awoke in an interrogation room. Milo had been notified, and he was there to interrogate. Apparently, nobody could find Dan.

“Hello, hello,” Milo greeted, “now, tell me who you are.”

“W-where am I?!”

“Welcome to Wyvern Base Interrogation Room Thirty-Seven. Now tell me who you are!”

“N-never!”

“Agent, please start protocol nine.”

Outside the room, an agent nodded to herself and pressed a white button. Milo left the room.

“What’s protocol nine?” Leo inquired.

“Watch.”

They watched through the one sided glass. When Jack pressed his hand on the glass, it was cold, far colder than room temperature. The man inside began to shiver.

“OKAY! I’LL TALK!” the prisoner yelled, shivering uncontrollable.

Milo signaled to turn off the cold.

“Now, your name?”

“E-Evan Norton.”

“And who do you work for?!”

“S-Scorpion.”

“Where in Scorpion?!”

“T-the Scorpion Levitation Train!”

“Where is that now?”

“C-Colorado!”

Milo shoved a table over to the prisoner and told him to input coordinates. The prisoner did and was soon let out to be transferred to a DAE prison. Milo interrogated and did the same with the others, making sure about the Scorpion Train’s location.

“Milo,” Jack called, “what about the others? They went on some optional mission somewhere.”

“Damn!” Milo growled, “Jack, Sukie, Leo, get a team set up and rescue them!”

Meanwhile, Xavier, Stacy, Daena, and Kitten were recovering from their shared case of headaches. 

“Are you guys seeing this?!” Xavier groaned.

“The world… just shifted?” Daena added.

“That- that wasn’t there before!” Kitten yelled, pointing at a dark blue door.

“What the hell?!” Stacy exclaimed, “That blue door looks like the plane cabin door! But like, not automatic!”

Carefully, Xavier went to the door that should not have existed. He gripped the door handle and began to open it. The door creaked. Behind the door, was a room.

“Wait, that’s Maizie and Stacy’s room!” Kitten realized, “This is impossible!”

“How do you know that’s our room?” Stacy pointed out.

“I’ve been helping Maizie with some of her homework.”

“Shut up,” Daena commanded, “let’s go in.”

The four began to enter, slowly but surely, Kitten first, then Stacy, then Xavier then-

-Daena heard the sounds of someone walking in the other hallway.

“Hello?” Daena blurted, turning to face the hall.

She turned back- and the blue door was gone. She pressed her hands to where it should have been. Nothing. Just wood. Far away, she heard someone walking.

“Hello? Anyone there?”

Daena pointed her pistol at the other exit. Still the sound of footsteps. There was also light talking. What the hell was going on?

“Hello?”

She crossed the hallway and put her ears to the kitchen door. Behind, she heard two people talking. From what she gathered, these were the missing people.

She turned the doorknob and entered.

“What the hell?!”

There were indeed two people, the missing ones. But something didn’t feel right with them, as if they were just… different than the photos. Eye color slightly more orange.

“Who are you?” the one called Maggie asked.

“D-Daena Santos,” she replied, “you two have been missing!”

“Shush!” the other shushed. “They’ll hear you!”

“What will?”

“The aliens.”

“What?!”

“There!” Maggie hissed, pointing at a window that wasn’t there before.

Outside, strange lights probed the yard. Others shone in, and the three hid behind objects. Along with the lights was a faint buzzing sound- no, it was more like popping.

“Do you guys smell that?”

“What is it, Daena?” the one called Steve inquired. 

“That smell. It’s like something being melted or burned- a corpse?!” she began. Suddenly, the doctor realized something. Steve had used her name- she hadn’t given her name. “How do you know my name?”

“You must’ve told me.”

“No, I haven’t. There’s no way any of this should be real!”

And to prove her point, she fired her pistol. The dart hit Steve, whose chest melted into orange-yellow goo, causing the dart to hit the wall. Daena watched in both fear and shock as everything in the world seemed to melt and-

“Daena? Are you okay?” Stacy asked, “You seemed really off that moment.”

Daena looked around. They were on the plane, and she was in her doctor’s office.

“What just happened? How did we get here?”

“Well, we established that ghosts weren’t there and we went back.”

“No…”

“Doctor, are you feeling well?” Jack asked.

“I- I need to lie down.” she stated, just before realizing Jack wasn’t supposed to be here. 

“Good, just lie down…” Jack cooed, his voice soothing her.

“No! None of this is real!”

Proving her point again, she fired her gun into a wall. The world reformed again. Now, she found herself in front of the blue door. She opened it and saw the others, and they seemed real.

Meanwhile, Kitten was confused. He has stepped through the blue doors, but he couldn’t see the others anywhere. They had just disappeared.

“H-hello?” Kitten called.

Kitten turned around to see that there was no more blue door. He turned around to see nobody else. He was somehow alone. Then, he realized something- the room had changed, ever so slightly. Now, there was a window. He peered through, and saw a hallway.

“What the hell?! Is this some kind of joke?!”

Kitten opened the window and started entering the new hallway. It seemed to keep turning and going forever. There were no rooms, and whenever he looked behind him, he could see the things he passed, but when he tried to go back, it became endless as well.

Suddenly, a painting seemed to just materialize. Confused, he touched the painting- a painting of the four trapped in some sort of basement. As he touched, he felt himself drawn into until-

Nowhere. He was just stuck on a plain of extreme darkness. He saw Xavier in the distance, except it didn’t look like Xavier.

Xavier, meanwhile, found himself alone in the room. He looked around, and suddenly, he saw a window. He looked out to see the skies.

“I-impossible…”

An alarm rang, an alarm that signalled an attack. From his viewpoint, he saw the plane burning.

Somewhere else, Daena awoke.

“What just happened?”

“Y-you were just standing there!” Stacy informed.

“Something isn’t right here- Oh my god!”

“What is it?” Kitten questioned.

“That white ball of ‘dust’! It isn’t dust! We’re all hallucinating this!”

“That could explain a lot,” Xavier agreed, “We just walked down a hallway that never ended.”

Without warning, the world all changed. This time, the other three did not melt, just their surroundings. When it was done, they found themselves hanging upside down. They were in the basement, they realized. Daena reached forward, freeing herself from the webs and falling to the floor. The others did the same as well. As they did, giant spiders scurried away.

“What the hell?!” Daena shouted, “Spiders?!”

“We need to get outta here!” Kitten shouted, finding a light and showing the way out.

The four exited, yet they forgot to notice one small detail- there was now no more Nopirocs Industries van.

-and suddenly they were on the plane.

“How did we get here?!” Daena questioned.

“We walked here. We’re giving our report via video call to Daniel Napoleon. Don’t you remember?” Kitten informed.

“No- No this can’t be right!” she decided, but even as she spoke, memories came back to her, making her doubt everything. “We were drugged by a hallucinogenic substance, right?! A-and the bodies found- all digested. Why don’t we have any wounds?! Why?!”

“Daena, you’re overthinking this,” Xavier assured, “we’re safe now.”

“No- this can’t be right! We could not have simply willed our way out of this! This clearly isn’t real!”

“Daena, calm down- put that gun down! We’re safe!” Kitten declared.

“No- none of this is real.”

Daena fired the gun, a dart shattering the large TV screen. Behind it, was bubbling orange.

And she awoke, this time in the true reality. She looked around, tightly wrapped in silk. She looked, seeing a spider spit strange juices upon her. Daena moved, freeing herself. Weakly, but with the combined forces of adrenaline, she took the chance to vomit, expelling her system of whatever venom was used. With the rejection and adrenaline, the poison was out. 

She found her knife and tried to wake the others, but found that they were still under the influence, no doubt in a false world. She knew this was the real world due to how everything seemed more real, from the injuries to the feelings. She knew somehow that her body had rejected whatever substance was inside her.

She began to reach the basement door when she saw two dead bodies. The two workers who had gone missing.

Daena opened the door, alerting some people in suits.

Suddenly, the doors opened, and Milo appeared, wearing a mask and a full hazmat suit.

“H-how did you know?”

“This area was restricted for a reason- we detected anomalous substances here years ago, and sealed it off. How those renovators were hired is unknown, but connected to another problem.”

With that, more suited agents began to scare off the mysterious spiders and freeing the heroes.

“H-how did I survive? Tell me,” Daena pleaded, now being carried to safety.

“Adrenaline. We found out that enough adrenaline can extinguish this substance.”

While the other three were being saved, let us check in on the spy outside. The spy photographed all of the action. While no-one noticed, he put a tracking device on one of the DAE vehicles.

“And who are you?” the spy heard just behind him. From the spy’s information, the spy knew it was Leo Weiss, the team’s ‘pet’ mercenary. “I have a gun. Don’t move.”

But the spy was better than that. The spy ducked down with lightning speed, then kicked Leo’s legs, knocking him off-balance. As Leo fell, the elite spy kicked the gun out of his hands and kicked him yet again. The spy knew his cover was blown, and the spy jumped into the vehicle.

“Argh!”

The vehicle drove off into the distance.

The Impossible Train  
Our eight heroes, Xavier, Daena, Kitten, Stacy, Jack, Leo, and Sukie, had arrived at a rather nondescript building. They all piled out of the vehicles and entered the building. Inside, several suited individuals welcomed them. They were briefed on the situation, and told that their main purpose was to make sure they all got inside safely. One of the men gave a short speech, and they began to give away all of the weapons they had given them. 

“You want us to give our guns back?” Kitten complained. 

“These will be more than enough to handle any threats. Please don’t feel the need to keep carrying weapons with you.” Milo replied, handing them small tasers.

“Thank you. You will not need your cell phones, weapons… and your shoes,” As they all obeyed, the speaker continued.

“Wait what?!” Stacy stepped back, appalled. “Our shoes?!”

“Ahem,” an agent began, “department policy number 29.325. You won’t believe what shoes can do.”

“I don’t care, which department came up with that crazy rule? What happens if there’s a terrorist attack or something? We’re going to get blown up if we wear these ridiculous shoes!” Stacy complained, putting on the ridiculous new shoes.

“Thank you for your cooperation,” it was the same man, but now in a more authoritative tone, “the elevator is this way. If you get a chance, please admire the architecture. We just restored this building. Thank you. And thank you for your worry. It is much appreciated. We do our best to keep New York as safe as possible.”

“We’re in New York?!” Kitten exclaimed, “I wanna see the Statue of Liberty! Did you know it has like, seventy hidden cannons?!”

The elevator hadn’t moved, and the man was looking at Kitten, clearly annoyed.

“Now, just get on these hover pads,” an agent ordered.

“Kitten, I didn’t know that! Now I just don’t see the point in wearing shoes where I can touch the ground, assuming I even feel the need to walk. This is stupid,” Daena complained, “let’s get out-“

“Would you guys stop being so dramatic?” the agent angrily yelled, “We’re in the middle of an elevator, and you can’t see how much fun this is? We have to do this for two minutes? Come on, I’ll give you a taste of the experience.”

He puts his hands against the sides of the elevator, and the doors close.

A vibration begins to run through the elevator, and the man’s smile widens as he takes a step back.

“Put your hands against the walls,” he leads, “feel it? The ground is moving.”

The four new agents put their hands against the walls, and you can feel the vibrations running up your arms. The walls of the elevator contract and expand. It feels like a leaf being blown by the wind. The four can’t decide what’s scarier, the man in front of them, or this experience. No one says a word, but fear is written on every face. The man’s hand begins to glow.

“Welcome to the Void,” he beams, and he begins to dance.

He takes a step forward, and the wind around them increases. All four closed their eyes and felt as though they were falling. They feel their hands grabbing at the sides of the elevator. All four grit their teeth and braces themselves for an impact due to the speed. An impact that doesn’t come. The four opened their eyes in time to see that they were still in the elevator, or what’s left of it. The man was gone. 

“What the…?” Leo asks.

“That guy’s a sentient hologram. He’s always grumpy, and acting weird,” Xavier explained, “as you can see, welcome to our second most advanced base- the Void.”

Xavier and some other agents began to click many buttons, activating consoles and computers none had ever seen before.

“Can I try one?” Maizie inquired.

“Sure,” an agent replied, “Just don’t break it.”

Maizie types in ‘Shoes’ as a password. To her surprise, a document opened up, one of every ‘special human’ in New York City.

“Wow… what is this?”

Maizie clicks on a file of a person named ‘bearded spectacle man?’. The ‘man’ in question’s file had a subheading, titled ‘possesses telekinesis’, which is followed by two more words, ‘not sure why’.

“Weird.”

There were plenty of other files, even people under the label ‘VIP’, which whoever was in charge of the database put a description being, ‘people always escorted by guards for some reason’.

“What’s that?” Jack asked, “May I?”

“Sure,” the agent responded.

Maizie and Jack clicked the ‘Scorpion category’ button, ‘then random file in this category’ button, and the name of someone named Nathan Holgard appeared.

A picture of a man appeared on the screen. He had strange, light skin, long white hair, and wore a long, dark blue coat that went down to his knees, with odd symbols all over it. His eyes are entirely black. He smiles at the camera, and holds a strange pistol-like object in his hand.

‘Wanted for crimes against humanity. Engine of destruction. Extremely dangerous. Engages in deadly sports, including hunting people. Encountered alone, always kill him. Watch out for the elevator gun.’

“What the hell is an elevator gun?!” Jack exclaimed.

“Just… don’t ask,” Milo Krassant stated. “You might encounter him on your next mission.”

“Hey, uh, Milo,” Maizie began, “whoever made your database is really bad at descriptions. Because really? Engine of destruction?”

“Lloyd R’Vaeren is uh… let’s say… he never takes anything seriously.”

Jack types in ‘Scorpion’ and searches. He scrolls, and stops on a picture of a man with strange armour, with a peculiar symbol on the helmet. He smiles at the camera, and holds a pistol by his side.

“That’s Frank,” Xavier realized, pointing him out, “I remember him.”

“You met this man?” Milo asks, surprised.

“Yes. He was an agent who was assigned to my unit a few years back. We became friends after that. One day, he just… just… he just vanished. I asked you not too long ago to look for him, but there wasn’t any information on him. His file had been erased. He probably went insane and lived out his life as a hermit. I guess we’ll never know what happened to him.”

“Peculiar. This man is Claudius Valentine, the most infamous assassin on the planet. We always thought he had a DAE background…”

Leo and Stacy joined the two others and continued to browse through the files, stopping at one that says ‘Wade’.

‘Loves hunting people. Dangerous. Stay away. Went berserk during a hunting expedition. Killed four men and took his father’s gun, which he used to shoot a boy. Escaped alone. Also, he has an awful taste in music.’

Stacy sighed as she saw a young man with dark black hair and light eyes. He smiles for the camera, holding a microphone in his hand. She recognizes it as the one he used to play with. He looks happy and carefree, and inspired one to smile along with him. Of course, that was before he went berserk.

The four continue to browse through the files, stopping on one that says ‘Sasha’.

‘Wanted for mass slaughter of humans. Also has a criminal record involving drugs and human trafficking. Desperate. Extremely dangerous.’

“Enough.” Milo closed the computer. “Some stuff in there isn’t good for you. You might encounter some of those guys in your next mission.”

“What?” Stacy said. “I thought we were gonna do an easy mission.”

“That’ll be after this one,” Daena guessed. “Maybe.”

Milo beckoned for the other to follow, and they all went into a large briefing room. But, to preserve the essence of the story, we will not look at the briefing.

Thirty minutes later, the eight, plus four squads of other agents began the flight to Colorado. Soon, they arrived in the wilds of Colorado. Peering out of their SUVs, our heroes see a large warehouse. Our heroes went on foot, preparing for the raid. Inside, you see, was the Scorpion Levitating Train.

A siren rings.

“Look out!” Leo shouts, pushing as many people as he could to the floor.

Several bullets slam into the SUV, and then several more after that. Agents scramble for their weapons, counter attacking the enemy force. Life after life, people fall, dead or injured. But the experience of the agents allows them to outsmart the Scorpion soldiers, who retreat inside the warehouse. 

“Everyone up!” Milo shouts, while firing his automatic rifle and killing a soldier. “Agent Kane, Agent Carter, get us some time!”

Xavier looks behind him, seeing the damage taken to the car. There’s a hole in the roof, and the windows are shattered. He sighs and says to our heroes, “Now’s our chance. Go!”

As the eight run, a bullet almost hits them.

“Sniper!” Agent Carter yells.

“My team will deal with it!” Agent Kane responds, already thinking of his next move.

As the team got near the building, several men with assault rifles leaned out of the windows and around the corners. One of them, a large man with a huge gun and a huge beard, opens fire. 

“That’s Wade!” Jack recognizes.

Above, the sniper is shot off the roof by Agent Kane. The sniper falls on an enemy soldier, who panics and fires bursts of gunfire everywhere, inflicting friendly fire.

Leo, being ever the hero, fires his shot gun into a window, surprising the enemy. Kitten jumps through the shattered glass and begins to attack with his twin electroshock batons.

A large monocled man approaches Kitten, blocking his view of a large, long train.

“Prepare to die!”

The man launches a punch at our dear Kitten, but one strike with his twin batons brings the man down. 

“Let’s move in!” Kitten yells, informing the others.

A soldier surprises Daena, smiling like a madman. Daena smiles back, and fires her shotgun. Buckshot appeared in the soldier’s chest, as the body fell to the floor.

An exceptionally armed soldier approaches young Maizie, but Stacy fires a bullet, killing the soldier.

Around the warehouse, sounds of both agents and soldiers are heard. Blood splatters, bodies fall as the battle rages on. The eight agents rush towards the Scorpion Levitation Train.

“Maizie, get us in!” Leo cheered on.

“And… got it!”

Maizie completed the hack and soon, all four were in the train, which seemed to be empty. It was styled like a hotel room, patterned silk carpets being the floor, but it had circular windows.

“Now just to-” Maizie began.

Without warning, the train lurched forward. Through the windows, they saw the train move forward, crashing into the wall. 

“Aagh!” everyone screamed.

The wall cracked, and shattered, sending sticks, bricks, and debris all over the battlefield.

Now, the train was outside, inches off the ground. Still, it was still a levitating train. The train began to head up the mountain, away from the battle scene when-

-Gunfire, from across the room.

“Get to the conductor’s room!” Xavier ordered, “Kitten, Sukie, let’s deal with this.”

In the other room, three soldiers prepared to attack. The team rushed to battle, firing pistols and getting the advantage.

One was about to shoot Daena when she shoved another soldier into the gun, killing the other instead. Daena took out her electroshock batons and defeated the last soldier.

“Wait, let me deal with the conductor room,” Daena suggested, wanting to protect Maizie.

The others nodded. 

Maizie hacked the door open and Daena burst in, finding only a man in full armour. However, this wasn’t just any man. This was Claudius Valentine, the most infamous man on the planet.

Daena lifted her batons and assumed a fighting position.

“You brought batons to a swordfight,” Valentine mocked.

“Huh?”

Valentine activated an extendable saber. He charged, and Daena deflected his attack. Valentine, however, was quite an expert, and managed to slash Daena. He laughed in dark sadism. Daena took the distraction and struck the man, but the armour appeared to have protected him.

“Fool. Doctor Zhao designed this to be baton-proof. Now, prepare to die.”

Valentine pressed a small, dark blue button on the hilt of his saber. His blade crackled, and it suddenly began to glow black. The black energy seemed to cover the blade, which was now pulsing with energy.

“Die.” Valentine charged.

Valentine raised his mysterious weapon and swung it down. Daena dodged the attack, and instead, the blade cut through a cabin door as if it was air. Daena struck with powerful agility at the man, but Valentine slashed through the baton, reducing Daena’s weapons to mere stubs.

“But,” Daena murmured.

“Hmm?”

“This.”

Daena activated a non-lethal shockwave grenade.

“No!”

The grenade sent Daena to the ground, unconscious. Valentine screamed as he fainted as well, resting against a cabin door. Jack peered in, and saw that the battlefield was cleared. 

“Now!”

The remaining four ran and opened the conductors room’s door. Inside, was a man who wore peculiar looking glasses and a lab coat. He had a name tag, and it said ‘Dr. Zhao’. The doctor pulled out a pistol, which Jack then knocked out.

“You built this? Right?” Maizie asked.

“Y-yes.”

“Now, tell me how to stop it or I’ll have to hack it and stop everything!”

“Don’t! If you stop everything, the fuel- portal energy will get out of control!”

“Then stop this train!”

“W-well, I can’t! Only that other dude can! The invisible guy!”

“What invisible guy?!” Jack demanded, “Maizie, shut everything down, he’s just lying!”

“On it!”

“No!”

Maizie tinkered with the controls, and soon, the train came to halt, crashing into a group of trees.

“W-we did it!” Maizie bubbled.

Suddenly, a black pulsing blade pierced through the closed doors. The others jumped in shock. Dr Eddie made his escape, grabbing a small rectangular device and leaving the train through a door.

As if the metal door was cake, the blade cut it in two. The masked and armoured Valentine revealed himself, raising his deadly weapon.

“Go after that doctor!” Kitten shouted from the room behind, “I’ll deal with this clown.”

“What about Xavier?” Jack asked.

“He’s down- unconscious, but he’ll be fine. I left him outside the train.”

The four raced after the doctor, while Kitten faced Valentine, raising his twin batons.

“Won’t work on me,” Valentine warned.

“Wasn’t thinking of that.”

In the portal based engine room, a certain Sukie unpinned a grenade and ran. The explosion damaged everything, and the train began to rumble. This, in turn, sent shockwaves all across the train. One by one, rooms began to explode, and the two could see the rooms just behind them explode.

“Clever.”

Valentine jumped through the windows, shattering through them as he jumped. Kitten followed, dragging Daena to safety as he did, but as he jumped out, the explosion knocked him off balance. Kitten got up, a bit dazed, but fine. Kitten chased after Valentine, who was going towards Doctor Eddie. Behind, a cloud of orange and red loomed like some evil monster in wait.

“Come back here!”

But, by the time Kitten had caught up, he saw Valentine pointing his mysterious blade at the others, ready to slash and kill. Behind him, Doctor Eddie pressed a bright purple button, and a portal formed. Dust swirled around the two as a dim purple sphere formed. The purples emitted other colors as well, as it engulfed the two. Valentine disappeared first and-

-Kitten raced and tried to grab the doctor before he could step through. But Kitten was too late, and as his right hand entered the crackling sphere, it closed in mere nanoseconds.

Kitten screamed as the time portal cut his right hand off. They had won, but two had escaped. Blood dripped as Kitten fell to the floor, unconscious. 

Behind them, the train gave a final explosion.

Dam It!  
For the next few days, everything went surprisingly smoothly. Although the warehouse had been destroyed, another warehouse still stood a short distance away, where a siege was taking place. The other warehouse was menagerie for animals Scorpion had captured. Why they didn’t know, nor any prisoners. They only got a message from the leaders.

“Ow!” Kitten winced.

“Stop that! Or the nanobots won’t be able to attach this new hand!” Daena shot. 

“Fine! We didn’t even get that much information on the mission!”

“No, but we now know that they can create stable portals and mask them.”

A peculiar machine was sending out bubbles out floating dust that went into Kitten’s arm. Attached to his cut off-wrist was a new, mechanical hand. It was metal, and it looked very skeletal.

“There,” Daena began, “now the nanobots should pair with your nerves, allowing you to touch and feel and all that nonsense.”

“Good, but I’ll need a damn glove.”

“Fine, here.”

Daena produced a dark blue glove for his mechanical right hand. Kitten tested out his new hand and found that was perfectly fine.

“Can I get back to my mission now?! Takedown Scorpion?!”

“Our mission, Kitten. Our.”

Kitten got up when Milo appeared.

“Sit down, agent.”

“Why- the warehouse!”

“It’s been dealt with. We won.”

“Aw, damn-”

“Wait, Kitten. We have a mission for the team.”

“Oh?”

“All the um, dinosaurs and stuff have escaped from the warehouse. We detonated an EMP and it knocked out all the cage electronics. Some dangerous animals are free now. By now, who knows how far they’ve gotten. So- first mission- Kaprosuchus, and if you can, track down Amargasaurus as well. Kaprosuchus is not a dinosaur, but extremely dangerous if the files are correct.”

“Fine. I’ll get on it.”

“Good, Xavier is waiting on the plane. We managed to shoot a tracking dart into one of the Kaprosuchus’ before the rest escaped.”

“On it.”

Daena and Kitten left the tent and headed to the plane, where an exhausted Xavier awaited them. As the two got on the plane, Sukie got off, along with the mysterious future artifact.

“Okay,” Xavier began, now that everyone was together, “we will be searching the woods for an approximate area. The tracker was damaged in the process. Leo, Daena, Kitten, and Stacy will be conducting the low search. The rest of us will be using pinpointing from the skies.”

Somewhere far away, a certain someone was dancing. This man was relatively young, had dyed dark purple hair, wore a gray trench coat, and wore gold, circular glasses. The room was gold and shiny, and it looked very royal. Banners strung in random orders kept saying ‘donate now to preserve animal life’, and other similar items.

“What did you say your name was again?” asked the young woman who was dancing with the man.

“Stick around, and you’ll find out,” hinted the man, kissing her right hand.

The man began to walk around the room, soon stopping at a small booth.

“Sir, everything is ready!” 

“Good, good. Prepare the device. How do some Dragon Wasps sound?”

“Good, sir.”

The woman who had been dancing with the man headed to the stage and chose a microphone. As soon as she stepped up, everyone stopped socializing and paid attention.

“You all know me, I am Angela Whitestone, founder of ‘Let Animals Live’!”

The crowd cheered. In the corner booth, the purple haired man booed. He was mostly ignored, only getting a couple of dirty looks.

“I despise them,” muttered the man, “pretending to save animals when the only way to do so is eradication of human development.”

“And today, we have some new sponsors- Nopirocs Industries!” Angela announced, pointing at the man’s booth. “Would you like to introduce yourself?”

“I think I would,” the man replied, going up onto the stage.

“We bring you- Nopirocs Industries!”

“Hello, do you know who I am?” asked the man. The crowd cheered, but did not know who he was. “Here at Nopirocs Industries we believe animals deserve to be saved! That’s why we’re bringing out our new candy selection- made from one-hundred percent organic materials. I bring you us, and me- Jacob Nopirocs!”

The crowd cheered as candy fell from the ceiling. Everyone rushed to taste the new flavors, all believing the lies.

“Sir, tell me how good this is!” Whitestone queried.

“Oh, very good,” lied the man. “Now action!”

“What? Action? Is this a Nopirocs Surprise?”

“Just you wait…”

Without warning, Whitestone fell to the floor and vomited. As if on cue, the majority of the audience did so as well.

“Ahem,” he began, “here at Noprocs Industries, we believe animals deserve to live. We can only achieve by the destruction of human development.”

“Y-you’re insane!”

“Ah, humans. So naive.”

“B-but you’re a human!” another protested.

“I know. When the time comes, I’ll bear the sacrifice as well. Now, ACTION!”

All over the room, beams of light met each other in the center. Dust rose up, quickly forming a sphere. Chairs and tables did as well, warping and transforming into something else.

“Now, here there be dragons.”

The portal opened, and a flurry of color danced on the sphere.

“W-what the hell?!” Whitestone shrieked.

“Oh, hello. Wanna know my name?” he taunted, turning to whisper in her ears, “I’m Hage Quazi. I see a new world come alive.”

The time portal began to warp and swirl as something began to come through. But not something big, but something small, about the size of vultures. But these were not vultures, rather, wasps.

“Ciao.”

Hage and his troops left the building, locking the doors in the process. Dozens of large wasps came through, attacking the poor humans. There was no escape, but death. Whitestone shrieked as one such wasp landed upon her, injecting two stingers into her neck.

Meanwhile, the portal did not close, but it only got bigger, and bigger. Everyone watched in horror as the portal engulfed them all.

“Ah, how wonderful,” Hage marvelled, “humanity.”

The portal engulfed the whole building. Hage flicked his wrist, and the portal shrinked, closing. The large building was gone, now stuck in an unknown time.

In place, was a barren floor.

“Sir, won’t people notice?”

“No one’s coming up this mountain for a while. I’ve rented the property.”

Back in the Colorado forests, a large creature snarled at a squirrel. It was large, the size of a crocodile. But it stood like a dog, and had amazing speed. The crocodyliform’s mouth had several tusks, much like a boar. There was a reason why the Kaprosuchus was called ‘Boar Croc’.

The lead Kaprosuchus snapped at the other, who was chasing a butterfly. The other growled, but paid attention. The five animals now began to head to the river, two adults, a young adult and two babies. They all chirped as the group headed to the river, smelling the strange new fish.

On the other side of the river were two colorful sauropods. They were smaller than most sauropods, just slightly bigger than a human, and relatively thin. Last, they were only about nine meters in length, very small for sauropods. The two drank, ignoring the dangerous Kaprosuchus.

One of the crocodyliforms snarled at the sauropods, then went into the water. The others followed the leader and they began swimming in the direction of the river.

Ahead, the five saw a beaver dam. A family of beavers were happily chopping wood and improving their home. The Kaprosuchus were intrigued, making them remember something. The lead growled at the beavers.

The beavers howled back, mostly annoyed.

Then, the two adult Kaprosuchus charged at the beavers, swimming as fast as possible. The two jumped atop the dam, scaring a young beaver away. An adult beaver charged in defense, sinking its sharp teeth into the fearsome Kaprosuchus. In return, the Kaprosuchus yowled in pain, then bit the beaver, and not letting go.

The beavers were scared, as they had never encountered the boar crocs before. The lead Kaprosuchus bit down, instantly killing the beaver. But beavers stand their ground, and two others emerged to fight. The other Kaprosuchus turned to face one newcomer.

With amazing speed, the Kaprosuchus rammed the beaver, breaking its bones. Then, the fearsome crocodile bit down, crushing its neck with amazing bite force. 

The last beaver saw this and abandoned the dam. The Kaprosuchus growled in triumph. The three younger animals hopped up onto the dam. The adults went off to modify the dam, while the smaller three entered the dam. Younger beavers were quickly slain by the conquering Kaprosuchus. The three soon made their way into the underground portion of the dam, where the beavers had made a home. The two babies, weary from their fights, fell asleep. An adult beaver waited outside the entrance returning from the woods, unaware of its fallen comrades. When they failed to return, it became very alarmed. It made a loud, horrid noise and began frantically looking for them.

It eventually found them, lying in the corner of the beaver’s home. They were dead and horribly torn up. Then, it was crushed by the jaws of the mighty Kaprosuchus.

Meanwhile, the agents watched the battle all unfold. The air team had located them, and now, Leo, Daena, Kitten, and Stacy were ready.

“Got a plan?” Kitten inquired.

“Those things look pretty vicious,” Daena pointed out.

Behind them, an Amargasaurus snorted. For the most part, the small sauropods ignored them.

“And we need to take these guys out too,” Leo reminded.

“Nah,” Stacy countered, “Amargasaurus aren’t dangerous. We’ll deal with those Kappy’s first.”

“Really, Kappy’s?” 

“Oh, shut it.”

The four pulled out their TSC pistols, waiting for the adults to return. Soon, the dark green crocodyliforms returned, along with some materials.

“They’re building a dam…” Daena noted.

“Well, dam it!” Stacy joked.

“No. Just, no.”

“Pay attention, they’re all inside.” Kitten pointed out.

“Let’s charge!” Leo declared.

“No, Leo!”

But it was too late, as Leo began the charge. Daena rolled her eyes and followed, leading the others as well. Luckily, they were silent enough that the Kaprosuchus couldn’t hear them. The Kaprosuchus were just ferrying items to add to the dam.

“Plan?” Stacy joked.

“Actually, yes,” Kitten interjected, “we’ll trap them in!”

“Brilliant, and how do we do that?” Daena pointed out.

“Grenade,” Stacy offered.

“No! Not even a shockwave!” Leo rejected, “We could injure them!”

“Odd, you’re always going on about killing stuff.”

“Well, not animals. And we’re to return them alive.”

“Then shock batons it is,” Daena suggested.

Everyone agreed with that, and Kitten and Daena handed the others their extra baton. Now that everyone was equipped with batons, they slowly made their way to the dam’s entrance.

“Aaaaand…”

Two red, glowing eyes pierced through the darkness of the dam. Daena prepared but- -the animal disappeared.

“What just happened?!” Kitten exclaimed, “I thought these animals were dangerous!”

“Animals aren’t dangerous,” Stacy countered, “prehistoric animals do not translate to generic movie monsters.”

“But T. rex will still kill people right?” Leo hoped.

“Ehh… no… it might be a scavenger.”

“What?! At least Velociraptors are dangerous.”

“No. Those are um, tiny, dog sized things. Oh, and they don’t hunt in packs.”

“Wait, what about some of the dinosaurs we faced before?” Kitten asked, “Those were pretty dangerous.”

“It might be a territory thing. Our first mission, the Euchambersia was probably just defending itself,” Stacy began, “the Terror Birds were probably just confused and angry, the pterosaurs claimed new territory and probably thought buildings and lights were competitors. The snow dinosaurs were just hunting.”

“Well, I thought this job was about dinosaur hunting. Guess not,” Leo groaned.

“Anyway, Kaprosuchus is a land predator, but it’s too small to harm us. We’ll lure it out or something. Xavier probably thought they were dangerous cause they look really cool. Got a cage?”

“Yeah,” Kitten replied.

A long moment later, a dog was trapped in a cage, with simulators making the animal bark. The barking lured the two adult Kaprosuchus into the cage, where they killed the dog. A quick button press later, the two adults were caught.

“And now the others,” Daena muttered, putting on some gloves and picking out a few juicy pieces of meat from a bucket.

Stacy did the same, and the two tried luring the other three out.

First to leave were the two babies, interested and curious at the sweet delicious smell of blood. They were quite quick, legs built for running quickly finding Stacy and Daena. The meat was drugged, and after a few tiny bites, they slept peacefully. After a while, the last Kaprosuchus investigated, and was fed the drugged meat. With that, the mission was over.

“Where do they go again?” Stacy wondered, asking Xavier.

“Right now, we’re putting them in our containment room on the plane. Later, I’ll show you its enclosure in Wyvern Base.” Xavier answered.

“And the Amargasaurus? How?”

“We’ll find a way to get them to the base.”

“Well, that was uneventful,” Leo groaned.

Also available at Dawnoftheportals.wordpress.com


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